About Co-operatives

What is a Co-operative?

A co-operative is an organization formed by people coming together to meet their common needs. Locally owned and democratically controlled by the members who use its services, co-operatives are founded on a common idea - that people know what's best for them and can work together to achieve their goals. Based on co-operative principles, they empower individuals, and encourage healthier and stronger communities, by enabling them to pool their resources and share risks.

Co-operatives and credit unions are active in every sector of the economy, including finance, insurance, agri-food and supply, wholesale and retail, housing, health, and the service sector. They can provide virtually every product or service, and can be either non-profit or for-profit enterprises.

Unlike the private, public or voluntary sectors, all co-operative organizations around the world are guided by the same seven principles:

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education and training
6. Co-operative among co-operatives
7. Concern for community

Collectively, there are over 10,000 co-operatives and credit unions in Canada, providing products and services to over 10 million Canadians.

Statement of Co-operative Identity

Definition 

A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.

Values 

Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.  Co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others.

Principles

1st Principle: Voluntary and Open Membership
Co-operatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.

2nd Principle: Democratic Member Control
Co-operatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions.  Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership.  In primary co-operatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one
vote), and co-operatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner.

3rd Principle: Member Economic Participation
Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their co-operative.  They usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership.  Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing their co-operative; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the co-operative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.

4th Principle: Autonomy and Independence
Co-operatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members.  If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their co-operative autonomy.

5th Principle: Education, Training and Information
Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives.  They inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of co-operation.

6th Principle: Co-operation Among Co-operatives
Co-operatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the co-operative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures.

7th Principle: Concern for Community
While focusing on member needs and wishes, co-operatives work for the sustainable development of their communities.

The Co-operative Advantage

Co-operatives and credit unions are community-based organizations that care not only about the bottom lines of their businesses, but also about the needs of their members and the quality of life in their communities. They bring many obvious benefits to their members such as sharing costs or financial dividends. But the process of being an active member brings its own rewards, allowing member-owners to solidify social and economic links in the community. Perhaps most importantly, membership provides a common ground and support to reduce isolation, and build confidence and skills.

Co-operative organizations differ from other businesses in three key ways:

A Different Purpose: Co-ops and credit unions meet the common needs of their members, whereas most investor-owned businesses exist to maximize profit for shareholders.

A Different Control Structure: Co-ops and credit unions use a system of one-member/one-vote, not one-vote-per-share. This helps them to serve common interests and to ensure that people, not capital, control the organization.

A Different Allocation of Profit: Co-ops and credit unions share profits among their member-owners on the basis of how much they use the organization, not on how many shares they hold.

There are a multitude of benefits that come from successful co-operatives and the ones that will apply to your situation will be as unique as your co-op is itself

Philosophical benefits

• People trump money in terms of priorities
• Modest savings for all instead of the excessive accumulation of profits by a few
• Opportunities to strengthen community bonds by helping one-another
• You can define your own needs instead of letting a conglomerate do it for you
• Product and service development by the people for the people
• Control of your own future
• Greater community autonomy
• More honest and ethical business practices
• Freedom from homogenized mass-market-driven goods and services

Community benefits

• Better access to quality products and services
• Fair market prices
• Strong customer/client loyalty
• Greater employment opportunities
• Ability to change things that don't work
• Economic and social growth in the community
• Access to new markets

Co-operatives in Canada

Co-operatives in Canada represent a large and diverse heritage of Canadians working together to build better communities based upon co-operative principles. Over 17,000,000 Canadians are co-operative members with 100,000 of them active as leaders on boards of directors and committees. Co-operatives employ over 150,000 Canadians. Canadian co-operatives, credit unions and caisses populaire have $275 billion in assets.

Co-operatives play an important role in many areas of Canadian life including:   

Financial Products, Insurance, Agriculture, Fisheries, Housing, Health Care, Retail, Communication, Day Care, Student Co-ops, Distribution, Publishing, Travel, Funeral Homes and more.


For more information, please visit: http://coopscanada.coop/en/about_co-operative/Co-op-Facts-and-Figures

Types of Co-operatives

A co-operative is a different way of doing business. As such, the co-op model can be used by many types of organizations, non-profit or for-profit. A key difference between a traditional structure and a co-op's structure comes in the order of priorities which, for a co-op, are to first meet the needs of its membership in a productive, self-sufficient and socially responsible manner.

A growing number of people in Canada, and around the world are recognizing the benefits of doing business the co-op way and although every co-op is unique, here are five key types:

1. Producer co-operatives: Some co-operatives process and market their members' products and services directly while others may also sell the input necessary to their members' economic activities.
   

   Examples: Agriculture co-operatives, pooling of equipment, advisory services, etc.

2. Multi-stakeholder co-operatives: The membership of these co-operatives is made of different categories of members who share a common interest in the organization.

Examples: home care services, health services, community services, etc.

3. Worker co-operatives: The purpose of these co-operatives is to provide their members with work by operating an enterprise. The co-operatives are owned by their employee members.

Examples: forestry, leisure, production and manufacturing, tourism, communications and marketing, etc.

4. Worker-Shareholder co-operatives: These are incorporated co-operatives that hold partial ownership of the business in which the co-op's members are employed. Because of its share capital, the co-operative may participate in the management of the business and the workers may influence work organization.

Examples: production and manufacturing, technology, etc.

5. Consumer co-operatives: They provide their members with goods and services for their personal use.

Examples: Food, credit unions, housing, insurance co-operatives, etc.

There are different ways to categorize co-operatives.  For the categorization of the federal Co-operatives Secretariat, click here.  


Today, about 10 million people are members of one or more of the 10,000 plus co-ops and credit unions in Canada, and these numbers are growing because people recognize the value in bottom-up influence as opposed to top-down control.

Co-operative Statistics

Co-operative Statistics

The federal Co-operatives Secretariat publishes statistics in annual guides entitled "Co-operatives in Canada," available at the following link:

Co-operatives Secretariat

Co-operatives Around the World

Co-operatives are about people working together to meet their common needs and aspirations. Growing from a great co-operative heritage, around the world over 800 million co-op members are making their communities a better place.  People working together build co-ops that provide services to members, create employment and give democratic control to the co-operative’s members. These co-operatives come together under the umbrella of the International Co-operative Alliance.



Getting Assistance

Need assistance? CoopZone is your information centre for resources and advisory services!

CoopZone was formed with the primary goal of nurturing co-operative growth in Canada. Our services are available to members of existing co-ops, who want to strengthen or grow their co-op, and to community leaders who are still at the idea stage with respect to starting a co-op. We are a bilingual national support network that strives to bring together all of the ideas, learnings and best practices from the various regions and sectors of the country in an effort to provide a centralized source of information and support.

There are countless available resources for creating Canadian co-operatives and a significant part of CoopZone's mandate is to bring this information together for easy reference for potential developers. The federal government, the provinces and territories - and various non-governmental organizations - all provide guidelines, checklists, case studies, best practices and other materials and this section will continue to grow as we collect the tools and information you need to succeed.

Here's what CoopZone has to offer:

* Information on starting and growing a co-op

* Guidance and advice through co-operative organizations and developers in your region

* Basic information on the Co-operative Development Initiative (CDI) program and on the numerous services offered by your local co-operative development organization

* Case studies, successes and best practices

* National communications and promotions

Call us at 1-403-276-8250.