THE COOPERATIVE
PROFESSIONALS GUILD
Mutualistic Funds for the US Cooperative Movement: A New Model of Cooperative Financing in the US?
Too often, cooperatives in the US face an unfriendly financing environment to support their creation and development. Limited federal support, restrictive philanthropy, and challenges in accessing traditional lending opportunities inhibit the growth of the cooperative sector. But innovative approaches in some of the most vibrant and robust cooperative ecosystems in the world could provide a pathway for the US cooperative movement to become self-sustaining and self-determined. Learn how a mutualistic fund supported by cooperatives could provide funding for the movement that eclipses current resources and supports a strong, united cooperative movement in the US.
Join us for a preview of one of the two days of the Cooperative Professionals Guild's 2025 conference, "Cooperative Attorneys, Accountants, and Communities: Cooperative Movements Getting Ahead of the Curve", bringing together legal and accounting professionals with other cooperative stakeholders to focus on the two critical areas of 1) cooperative financing and 2) collective ownership of land and real property, which are existential to cooperatives' longterm sustainability and critical challenges in the current political and economic environment. We will be gathering in-person at the Humphrey Institute's Conference Center, on the U of MN-Minneapolis campus, on October 2-4, 2025, with many MN-based cooperative partners that are doing amazing work locally, regionally, and nationally.
Alex Stone has been the Executive Director of CW since early 2016. She first became involved with co-ops through student housing co-ops at UC Berkeley, where she lived for three years and participated as a house-level manager and board member. She was deeply involved with the creation of the Berkeley Student Food Collective and served as the store’s first Operations Manager through its first two years. Alex co-founded the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive and coordinated its first training involving over twenty students from seven universities across the west coast. As ED of CW, she has grown the network, undertaken a redesign of our flagship training for cooperative developers, and cultivated deep ties across the cooperative movement in the US. She completed the Master of Management, Cooperatives, and Credit Unions program in the International Centre for Co-operative Management at Saint Mary’s University in 2024. She was a Just Economy Institute fellow for the 2022-2023 cohort. In May 2025, she joined the NCBA-CLUSA board of Directors.
The Cooperative Professionals Guild, 2024
Contact us at: membership@professionals.coop
