Cooperative Development Institute

10/07/2026

Congratulations East Bay Fishermen's Cooperative on winning this national, highly competitive 2026 Co-op Innovation Award! Well deserved! We are proud to be supporting you in your journey and continue to root for your success!

Capital Impact Partners and National Cooperative Bank announced the winners earlier this month, naming four organizations that will receive $135,000 to advance innovative cooperative models.

Read the full press release here: https://www.capitalimpact.org/press-release/capital-impact-partners-announce-2026-co-op-innovation-awards/

10/06/2026

Don't miss the first of three webinars happening tomorrow! See you there.

What does it take to turn a business into a worker cooperative? Tune into this practical conversation about the conversion process, financing, managing change, and what business owners and employees should consider when exploring cooperative ownership as a succession strategy.

Panelists from Maine Camp Outfitters, Kevin Browne Architecture , O'Donal's Nursery will join our moderator Rob Brown from the Cooperative Development Institute for an insightful discussion.

Register at https://maine.coop/co-op-month-webinar-series-2026/

10/06/2026

How do we move cooperatives from a small-but-growing sector to holding a larger share of our economy? That’s a question the panelists attending the Worker Cooperative Conference in Boston tried to answer last week in their plenary “Visions for the Future.”

CDI’s Rob Brown, who was a panelist, shared how strong partnerships across the Northeast region can bolster knowledge and skills to support increased demand for worker cooperative conversions. Worker cooperatives are proven to build stronger, more resilient businesses that keep quality jobs in our communities.

CDI is a proud partner of the Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI), an ecosystem-building partnership of organizations and lenders with deep experience in exit-planning and ownership transitions.

Thank you US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and Democracy At Work Institute for organizing this conference and highlighting the power of cooperatives to change ownership of our economies!

Learn more about CDI's Business Ownership Solutions Program here: https://cdi.coop/business-ownership-solutions/

Today's plenary "Visions for the Future" is inspiring!

Panelists speak to home ownership and housing cooperatives, closing the racial wealth gap through worker ownership and the legal and financial resources available for cooperators in New England and across the country.

09/29/2026

This October, tune in to the Cooperative Maine Business Alliance’s 2026 Co-op Month Webinar Series, Building Better Co-ops! This free, three-part series will explore practical strategies for strengthening ownership, transparency, and engagement in cooperatives, with sessions on employee ownership, workplace culture, and financial transparency. Register for one or all three webinars for free here: https://maine.coop/co-op-month-webinar-series-2026/

See you there!

09/23/2026

Last year, Wilton-based Earth Sky + Water founder Steven Lewers, 77, began thinking about retirement, but was concerned about the company he would be leaving behind.

"A part of my thinking was, of course, my legacy; I want the company to do well after I leave, and I also felt an obligation to my employees and to the community we’ve worked in all these years," Lewers says via email.

In early 2025, Lewers called the nonprofit Cooperative Development Institute, based in Northampton, Mass. CDI provides business, management, financial and workforce assessments to help owners understand company valuation, and connects prospective owners with lenders for financing and lawyers’ representation during the transaction.

Rob Brown, Director of CDI's Business Ownership Solutions Program, talked Earth Sky + Water employees through the process of becoming a worker-owned cooperative, helping them form a steering committee.

"We were opened up to a whole new world. We went through due diligence, and came up with a whole business plan and all the financials that the CFNE wanted. We started learning about bylaws, how we would structure ourselves legally and how co-ops work. Everyone took notes and did their homework," Lewers adds.

Read the full story in the New Hampshire Business Review: https://www.nhbr.com/elements-of-ownership/

08/18/2026

Last night, the homeowners of Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative celebrated the purchase of their community with an event attended by Maine Gov. Janet Mills. Congratulations to these residents again for their amazing feat!

Hidden Circle in Jay is the first community to benefit from a strengthened ‘Right of First Refusal’ state law that went into effect last October, making it easier for residents to purchase their communities when they go up for sale.

The residents closed on the purchase of their community on July 30, 2026. Read more here: https://cdi.coop/maine-residents-purchase-community-for-1-million-preserving-affordable-housing/

08/05/2026

As the cost of healthcare in the U.S. continues to rise, a group of local herbalists launched a co-op to help community members harness the power of herbs to support their health at home.

“Providence is a highly diverse urban city. A lot of communities lean on herbal remedies to support their health,” said Erin Soule, one of four worker-owners of Gentle Strength Herbal Co-op, which sells its locally grown herbs, tea blends, and tinctures at the Armory Park Farmers Market in Providence and the Garden City Farmers Market in Cranston. They also host herb workshops at the Urban Greens Co-op Market in Providence.

“The healthcare system is being stripped away and it’s a crucial time to share education about herbalism that historically has been used by many cultures,” Erin continued.

The worker-owners of Gentle Strength – Narcissa Segura, Chandelle Wilson, Erin Soule, and Tammy Kim – began working on the idea for the business about three years ago. Then, they got the help of CDI to turn their vision into a reality, formally incorporating as a co-op, and setting up their governance structure and policies. The co-op soft launched in April.

Read the full story here: https://cdi.coop/as-healthcare-costs-rise-rhode-island-co-op-increases-access-to-herbal-remedies/

07/30/2026

Today, the residents of The Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park in Jay, Maine can call themselves owners of the community. Please join us in congratulating these residents who met obstacle after obstacle with perseverance, and made what seemed impossible happen!

The Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative purchased its manufactured home community for $1 million, ensuring the land beneath 31 homes in Jay can remain locally owned and affordable for years to come.

“It hasn’t been an easy process, but we never gave up” said Travis, a resident of Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park and president of the cooperative’s volunteer board. “We had to purchase the park because the alternative could be worse. Someone could come in here and hike up the rents and eventually push people out of their homes. Now, people can feel financially safe and safe in their homes.”

Read their story here: https://cdi.coop/maine-residents-purchase-community-for-1-million-preserving-affordable-housing/

07/23/2026

In this third installment of our Cooperative Resilience video series, CDI’s Pável Uranga interviews Javier Ruiz Tagle, Ph.D, a cooperative housing expert and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Watch the video as Dr. Ruiz Tagle covers topics including:
1. How different countries finance housing co-ops
2. How the U.S. can support the creation of housing co-ops
3. How to expand support for co-op residents beyond housing
4. Importance of promoting successes far and wide

In this video series, Pável interviews members of cooperatives and experts in countries facing conflict to understand how they support their communities and thrive in times of adversity. Stay tuned in for future videos!

Watch the video here: https://cdi.coop/video-series-cooperative-resilience/

07/21/2026

"Over the next decade, roughly six million baby boomer small business owners are expected to exit their companies, according to a recent McKinsey study. Over one million of these businesses, representing $5 trillion in value, will enter the market.

"At a time when wealth inequality in the US just hit a 30-year high, some owners are converting into employee-owned cooperatives that transfer wealth to workers rather than selling to private equity firms or shutting down.

"'There’s a big opportunity for a racial wealth transfer as well as a generational one because of the demographics of who’s in the workforce versus who the owning group is,” said Carolyn Edsell-Vetter, program director at the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast (CFNE).'"
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Thank you NCRC for highlighting worker cooperatives as a solution for keeping jobs and small businesses alive and thriving in our communities -- not to mention giving wealth building opportunities for workers often left behind!

Read the full story by NCRC here: https://ncrc.org/as-small-business-owners-retire-worker-cooperatives-could-help-close-wealth-gap/