Co-ops Generate Billions in Income While Supporting Community Causes
Llike Education & the Environment.

A Cooperative’s Community Involvement is ‘No Coincidence’

Cooperative businesses generate hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in income for their communities while also supporting local causes ranging from education to the environment, according to a series of case studies compiled to help mark October as National Co-op Month.

Research done by the National Co-op Month Planning Committee shows that compared to other sectors, co-ops prevail when it comes to making economic and charitable contributions to their communities. Among the highlights:

• Nearly 3,000 farmer cooperatives account for as many as 300,000 jobs nationwide and a total payroll of more than $8 billion.
• Some 270 local, consumer-owned telecommunications cooperatives employ an average of 47 people each and generate more than $2 billion in revenues annually.
• In Minnesota alone, cooperatives of all types generate more than $10 billion in economic activity per year. In New York, credit unions alone contribute $4 billion annually to the economy.

Community projects highlighted include:

• A rural electric co-op in South Dakota helped fund an ethanol plant that today adds $50 million to the area’s economy.
• Four credit unions combined to assist low-income New Yorkers with their tax forms, triggering $2.5 million in tax refunds that otherwise would have gone unclaimed.
• An Arizona food co-op formed a recycling program that now includes approximately 100 businesses and was cited as the best in the state.
• A co-op printer in Massachusetts donates 10 percent of its profits to the community in support of causes including labor and human rights, the environment, child development and the homeless.

It is no coincidence that co-ops show a special loyalty to their communities. As member-controlled enterprises, co-ops are run largely by the people who live and work in the communities they serve. That gives them a different perspective from businesses owned by distant investors.

Cooperatives serve 120 million members, or four in 10 Americans. They fall into four categories: consumer, producer, worker and purchasing/shared services. They operate in virtually every industry and range in size from small storefronts to Fortune 500 companies.

Despite this diversity, co-ops have some things in common. They are owned and democratically controlled by the people who use their services or buy their goods. They are motivated by service to their members, not by profit.

“These characteristics give co-ops an uncommon loyalty and commitment to the communities in which they are located”, said Roger Eldridge of the National Milk Producers Federation, chair of the Co-op Month Planning Committee.

Cooperatives are motivated to serve their members, not outside investors. Doing that means co-ops must also serve the communities in which their members live, work and play.

Eldridge noted that, with extensive community commitment, cooperatives are unlikely to be moving operations offshore, as some investor-owned businesses have done. "They are too loyal to their members to move to their business to other countries," he said.

At a time of increasing concern about the national economy, co-ops are creating jobs, income and opportunity in their communities every day. Sure, investor-owned businesses generate jobs and make charitable contributions. But for co-ops it’s more personal. It’s a critical part of where we work, what we do and why we do it.

The case studies are available on the National Cooperative Month website at www.coopmonth.coop.

Co-op Month has been celebrated in one form or another since 1930. Since 1971, it has been a joint project of the major co-op groups represented on the Co-op Month Planning Committee. The committee contracts with the National Cooperative Business Association to coordinate work on Co-op Month.

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