Giving Compass' Take:

• Steve Dubb discusses drivers of the growth of worker co-ops, a rapidly-expanding component of the US economy. 

• How can funders help support co-ops and help them flourish? 

• Find out how co-ops can build prosperity in rural communities.

While worker co-ops are still a small part of the US economy, they are growing rapidly. Esteban Kelly, executive director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, explains some of the underlying factors.

What is behind the growth of the sector? Kelly credits a few factors:

  1. Great Recession: The 2008 financial crisis was a big catalyst. “When the collapse happened, there was suddenly a hunger for another way to do things,” notes Kelly.
  2. Media­: Kelly cites Michael Moore’s documentary Capitalism: A Love Story (2009), which profiled worker co-ops, including some of USFWC’s members, as one of a number of media efforts that increased the profile of worker cooperatives.
  3. Activism: Occupy Wall Street helped launch new discussion about worker co-ops.
  4. International Visibility: 2012 was the United Nations-designated International Year of Cooperatives, which raised co-op visibility.
  5. Local Politics: In 2014, Bill de Blasio was elected mayor of New York City. “Newly appointed staff, some of whom were friends of friends of friends of USFWC, were saying ‘I’m in a position of power, what can I do that would be helpful?’,” Kelly recalls

Read the full article about the growth of worker co-ops by Steve Dubb at Nonprofit Quarterly.