Cooperative Community Funds in 2018
The Cooperative Community Fund program is sponsored by Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (TPCF), which created the first Cooperative Community Fund in 1998. During 2018, its 20th year, TPCF will see 50 food co-ops sponsoring a local Cooperative Community Fund (CCF).
There are two driving forces for the CCF program: first, all of the income earned from the investment of principal is donated by each of the Cooperative Community Funds to nonprofits in their local community.
Second, all the principal (currently $3.5 million) held by TPCF is invested only in cooperative development organizations and is leveraged for the development of cooperatives. These investments are summarized below.
2018 success
At the end of fiscal year 2018, the TPCF/CCF program will record the following successes:
• Our investments leveraged over $40 million for the development
of cooperatives.
• Our 50 Cooperative Community Funds have donated over
$800,000 to their local nonprofits.
• Twin Pines has raised over $400,000 in external matches donated
to our CCFs.
• In fiscal year 2018 our total CCF endowments grew by almost
$400,000.
• Our 50 sponsor food co-ops garner over $1 billion dollars in retail
sales a year.
• We help co-ops build on the strongest link with their members:
their local giving.
• Co-op members in the U.S. have donated over $1.8 million to
their Cooperative Community Funds.
• TPCF and the 50 CCFs are living examples of the sixth principle
of the International Co-operative Alliance: cooperation among
cooperatives.
2020 vision
By 2020, TPCF plans to promote the Cooperative Development Decade through:
• expanding the CCF program to over 60 food co-ops;
• growing our investment corpus to $5 million;
• boosting leveraged capital to $60 million to fund cooperative
development.
Over $400,000 from other funders
A big thank you to the following donors for providing a number of the $5,000 Founder Matches, Patronage Matches, and Round-Up Matches: Blooming Prairie Foundation, Cabot Creamery, Capital Impact, Equal Exchange, Frontier Co-op, National Cooperative Bank, National Co+op Grocers, Organic Valley, The Cooperative Foundation, and the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. Please support the organizations which support us.
Three ways to match
TPCF operates three matching programs:
Founder Match: These provide $5,000 donated by a funder co-op for each new co-op joining the CCF program. The incoming food co-op must also contribute $5,000 in order to start each CCF with a $10,000 endowment base.
Patronage Match: For those food co-ops operating a patronage refund system, TPCF offers matches from $1,000 to $4,000 coming jointly from co-op funders. The sponsor co-op must put up an equal match of their own dollars. For example, $2,000 comes from TPCF and $2,000 from the sponsor co-op. The co-op’s members are then challenged by that $4,000 to donate $4,000 of their patronage refund to their own CCF. The Patronage Match in this case would add $8,000 to the participating food co-op’s CCF. Patronage Match funds were provided in 2018 by Frontier Co-op, National Cooperative Bank, and Organic Valley.
Round-Up Match: Some food co-ops operate a round-up program in which the members and customers are encouraged at the cash register to donate their change to that month’s chosen local nonprofit. In some co-ops, October is chosen as the month in which the round-up is dedicated to their local CCF. The same match-match process is used as in the Patronage Match program. Members and customers are told that during Co-op Month the round-up change donated to the local CCF will be matched up to $4,000 jointly by TPCF and the local co-op. The Round-Up Match in this case would add another $8,000 to the sponsor co-op’s CCF.
The Cooperative Community Funds actively fulfill three of the International Cooperative Alliance cooperative principles: education, training, and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.
Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation invests the TPCF/CCF assets only in cooperative development, to build a sustainable and vibrant cooperative economy in the U.S. It has invested, loaned, or deposited funds for the development of cooperatives in the following:
• $650,000 in Shared Capital Cooperative (national)
• $100,000 in Cooperative Fund of New England (New England)
• $500,000 in ICA’s LEAF fund (Northeast and national)
• $500,000 in Organic Valley Co-op (based in Wisconsin, with farmer
members throughout the U.S.)
• $500,000 in Equal Exchange (based in New England with national
distribution)
• $50,000 in NCB Savings (federally insured, National Co-op Bank
affiliate)
• $660,000 in New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (mobile home
park co-ops)
• $150,000 in Northern California Community Loan Fund
• $10,000 in Organic Maple Cooperative (Cashton, Wis.)
• $100,000 in Co-opportunity B Shares for its second store in Culver City, Cal.
Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation and the Cooperative Community Fund invests more equity-like funding to cooperative development organizations in the U.S. than any other cooperative organization. TPCF/CCF assets are financing the development of consumer, worker, and housing cooperatives and land trusts throughout the country.
Every dollar deposited into the TPCF/CCF program leverages another 12 dollars of financing for cooperative development. Thus, TPCF/CCF dollars generate over 40 million dollars of lending, with most of that lent to food cooperatives. Almost every food co-op loan in the U.S. is funded in part with TPCF/CCF dollars. •
Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
Building cooperatives since 1964
community.coop
Cathy Murnighan, Executive Director
216 F. Street, PMB 1844, Davis, CA 95616
916-944-4935
David J. Thompson, President
530-757-2233
cell: 530-400-9765
Many Thanks to Our Sponsors over the Years
