Last year, hundreds of cooperators across the country joined NCBA CLUSA, the Cooperative Development Foundation and local stakeholders for a series of regional Cooperative Policy Roundtables.
These conversations were part of ongoing research funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to quantify the social and economic impact of cooperatives—part of the philanthropy’s longtime focus on healthy communities.
This work began with a framework for measuring co-op impact developed in partnership with the Urban Institute and culminated earlier this month during NCBA CLUSA’s 2020 Cooperative IMPACT Conference during a session called “Policy Strategies to Build a More Inclusive Economy with Cooperatives.” During that session, conference registrants got an exclusive first look at a new report from the Urban Institute published by NCBA CLUSA and the Cooperative Development Foundation.
The report provides an overview of the role cooperatives can play in building healthy, equitable and sustainable communities, and explains how federal, state and local policies can advance that work. The policy objectives presented in the report are intended not only to grow the cooperative sector, but also to enhance the work of co-ops that address economic and racial disparities in the U.S.