About the Cooperative Movement

Cooperatives are businesses owned and managed by and for their members. Members can be customers or employees. What makes a co-op different to a shareholder business is that each member has a say in how the business is run and gets a share of the profit.

Videos:

What is a Co-Op?

What is a Housing Co-Op?

How a cooperative model works in the Philippines

Steps to creating a cooperative in the U.S.

Did you know that cooperatives can be found in almost every sector?

  • Agriculture
  • Business services (IT, administrative, consulting, management)
  • Consumer Goods and Services
  • Cooperative Councils
  • Credit Unions
  • Credit Union Leagues
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Financial Services
  • Fishing
  • General Cooperative Associations & Sector Associations
  • Healthcare
  • Hospitality (hotel, food service, tourism, travel)
  • Housing
  • Industry (mining, manufacturing, and construction)
  • Insurance
  • Purchasing
  • Research
  • Transportation
  • Utilities (energy, water supply, and waste management)
  • Worker Cooperatives

Some of the world’s largest and most successful enterprises are Cooperatives – the top 300 Cooperatives alone have a turnover of over $2.2 trillion