How to Go from Collaborating to Cooperating
In the spirit of the International Year of Cooperatives, as declared by the UN for the year 2025, we at Collectivity would like to highlight the incredible potential for cooperatives to build a better world.
Cooperatives (businesses owned by and for their members) are a versatile and powerful model for solving the common needs and pain points of communities, inclusive of nonprofits. Here in Minnesota, we have more cooperatives than anywhere else in the country with a rich history of coming together and cooperating to accomplish what we cannot alone. Cooperatives have helped rural Minnesotans access electricity in the early 1900s and helped stabilize the Twin Cities during the Great Depression.
Today, as we seek solutions for the impacts caused by funding and policy changes of the federal administration and to meet the overall current thorny challenges, such as access/affordablity of housing, childcare, healthcare, and immense changes/opportunities in energy/climate, small business, and agriculture, we would be remiss not to recognize that cooperatives are already showcasing proven ways we can meet these deep needs and market failures. Cooperative ownership of mobile home parks is transforming lives with lower housing costs and a stronger voice for your living arrangement. Cooperative succession planning for retiring business owners is saving jobs and preserving essential local businesses. These examples and hundreds more point us towards a more equitable, people-centered future.
For nonprofits specifically, we can be stronger together by moving beyond collaborating to designing cooperative solutions to address common stressors. For example, starting purchasing co-ops to help solve high service contracts, exploring tenant co-ops to help solve high/variable office space, and seeking shared services cooperatives to help solve high health insurance costs.
To learn more, join us at upcoming events:
The first annual Minnesota Cooperative Summit: Cooperatively Building a Better World | July 29-30 | University of Minnesota Morris
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Annual Conference | October 9-10 | Saint Paul RiverCenter | Specific session on co-ops titled “How to go from Collaborating … to Cooperating”
Or, contact us [katie.marty@collectivity.coop] to have a conversation about co-op opportunities for you and your organization.
