On February 4th, 2021, our Director of Economic Democracy, Ricardo Nuñez, provided a brief orientation for worker cooperatives and their supporters to the considerations around raising cooperative capital in California. Below, you'll find the recording and follow up resources that we shared with attendees.

First, we wanted to give another shout out to the City of Berkeley for funding this presentation and to Kieron Slaughter, Chief Community Development Officer at the City of Berkeley's Office of Economic Development, for showing up and giving some very useful and useable information on how the City of Berkeley is supporting the growth of worker cooperatives in Berkeley and beyond! Thank you!

Second, you'll find the recording of our webinar (remember, this webinar is focused on California laws, but many states have similar laws... talk to an attorney!) and a list of resources below that was mentioned on the webinar.

• Here's the slide deck, if that's useful for you. Almost all of the Law Center's resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), except where otherwise noted, so feel free to remix and use as long as you attribute and share-alike!

• Want to dive deeper into your specific legal questions? RSVP for an upcoming Resilient Communities Legal Cafe! We host them virtually thrice per month with experienced legal professionals and cooperative technical assistance providers. 

• Check out Co-opLaw.org, an online legal resource library supporting democratic, worker-owned businesses from the Sustainable Economies Law Center and our friends and comrades across the country. Looking for legal resources, including template bylaws and operating agreements? Search Co-opLaw.org!

  • Here's a link to our resources on financing a worker cooperative on Co-opLaw.org.

  • Here's a link to our Capital Raising for Worker Cooperatives: Using the Community Investor Provision memo here

  • Here's a link to our Think Outside the Boss manual. 

  • Here's a link to our Legal Guide to Cooperative Conversions.

• Looking for resources to support your capital raising needs? Check out on of the following amazing organizations!

  • Shared Capital Cooperative: Shared Capital Cooperative is a national CDFI loan fund that connects co-ops and capital to build economic democracy. Working with capital invested by the cooperative sector and its allies, they provide financing for the expansion and startup of cooperatively-owned businesses and housing throughout the United States. They are a cooperative themselves with over 250 members nation-wide in 35 states! 

  • Cutting Edge Capital: Cutting Edge Capital is working to build an economy that works for everyone and provides opportunities for everyone to participate, thrive, and build wealth. To do this, they design and implement community capital offerings and help their clients raise capital from their own communities in alignment with their values and goals.

  • SEED Commons: Seed Commons, developed by The Working World, is a national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control. By taking guidance from the grassroots and sharing capital and resources to support local cooperative businesses, they are building the infrastructure necessary for a truly just, democratic and sustainable new economy.

• Looking for business, policy, and other resources for your worker cooperative? Check out the Democracy at Work Institute, ensuring that worker cooperative development in economically and socially marginalized communities is adequately supported, effective, and strategically directed.

• Want to connect with the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives - the only national business association of worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces - and its members? Find out how to join their Slack space here!

• Looking for business support for your potential cooperative conversion? Check out Project Equity and their resources, like free 30 minute consultations!

• Not enough resources for you? Check many of Ricardo's favorite, go-to resources for worker cooperatives, democratic organizations, and worker self-directed nonprofits here.   

We look forward to supporting you in your cooperative endeavors!