Are you interested in starting a co-op? Joining one? Just curious as to how they work?

Below is a list of resources that can get you started working cooperatively. This list includes co-op developers, incubators, educators, financing opportunities and more.

• Resources from the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives 
  
  
• Tools for Worker Cooperatives from the Democracy at Work Institute
  
  
• Worker Co-op Resources and Guides from the Sustainable Economies Law Center
  
  
• Resource Library from Cooperation Works!
  
  
• Resource List from Start.Coop 
  
  
• Resources from National Cooperative Business Association
  
  
• New Economy Coalition Rural Electric Cooperative Toolkit
  
  
• New Economy Coalition Pathways to a People’s Economy Toolkit
  
  
• Co-op Friendly Funders database from Start.Coop.

Finding Co-ops

Recommended Reading, Media, and Education

These are partial lists that we hope spark your interest, and set you on course to read and watch other great materials on cooperatives. 

Studies

• Worker Cooperatives: Good, Sustainable Jobs in the Community* - Virginie Pérotin, Leeds University Business School, 2014
  
  
• Lasting Impact. Measuring the social impact of worker and social cooperatives in Europe: Focusing on Italy and Spain - CECOP, 2021
  
  
• Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2016.
  
  
• Policy Recommendations for Amendments to the State of Illinois Worker Cooperative Statute. Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 2018

Articles

• Are Worker Cooperatives a Viable Way to Promote a More Equitable Economy?
  
  
• A brief history of Black cooperatives in the U.S. - Interview with Jessica Gordon Nembard
  
  
• Here's why Indigenous economics is the key to saving nature  - International Institute for Environment and Development
  
  
• Racial Equity in Co-ops: 6 Key Challenges and How to Meet Them
  
  
• How worker, social and producers cooperatives contribute to a sustainable economy?
  
  
• From Philanthropic Black Capitalism to Socialism: Cooperativism in Du Bois’s Economic Thought
  
  
• Want to See Food and Land Justice for Black Americans? Support These Groups.
  
  
• The Role of Energy Cooperatives in Advancing Clean Energy

d@w Media

Co-ops in d@w Media

Other Media

• Upstream Podcast: Two-part radio documentary series about worker cooperatives
  
  
• Podcast: Jessica Gordon Nembhard on the History and Power of African-American Cooperatives
  
  
• RADIX! - Youth Build Solidarity & Worker-Ownership in a Post-Industrial City [short film]
  
  
• Everything Coop Podcast/Radio show
  
  
  

Education

• How to Start a Worker Cooperative - Self-paced, online class from LA Co-op Lab
  
  
• Multiple courses and programs from Round Sky Solutions
  
  
• Multiple courses and programs from Sociocracy for All
    
• The Cooperative Culture Handbook - A practical toolkit for groups to solve problems, build community, and change culture towards greater empathy and authenticity. 

Co-op Legislation

While NGOs, like the International Labor Organization, provide recommendations for legislation to enable and foster cooperative growth, the United States has no federal legislation specifically intended to promote these guidelines. Indeed, unlike other jurisdictions (like Quebec), the United States does not have a government ministry or agency dedicated to developing and fostering worker cooperatives. While agricultural producer cooperatives are supported by the Department of Agriculture, consumer and producer cooperatives don’t have any institutional support. As a result, the legal framework for worker cooperatives depends largely on specific legislation in states and cities.

The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA CLUSA) has collected this diverse set of legislative initiatives into a NCBA statute library website.  The website is a useful reference tool for individuals who want to quickly access specific provisions in different states’ cooperative laws and also have the ability to compare the provisions with similar provisions in other jurisdictions. The library provides a provision-by-provision description of state laws, formatted as an Excel spreadsheet with different pages on subjects such as cooperative purpose, powers, formation, articles of incorporation, bylaws, membership, control, directors, officers, patronage, finance, merger, consolidation, and dissolution.

The library also includes answers to questions on how cooperatives are treated under specific states’ securities, antitrust, escheat, and unclaimed property laws. Further, states’ cooperative tax regimes are described, including state law provisions regarding cooperative income tax, franchise taxes, sales taxes, the domestic production credit, and other taxes and exemptions.