As cooperative enterprises across the U.S. work to grow their businesses and impact their communities, they should consider an underutilized strategy: cooperating with other cooperatives.
A new project, called the Principle 6 (P6) Initiative, will identify and scale local, regional and national opportunities for cooperatives to work together across sectors, acting on the 6th Cooperative Principle, or “cooperation among cooperatives.” Led by the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA), the P6 Initiative seeks to capture the potential cooperatives have as a network of vital and inclusive community institutions.
“As the national association for cooperative enterprises in the U.S., NCBA CLUSA is uniquely positioned to bring co-ops together to accelerate their growth and impact—whether through advocacy, innovation, cross-marketing or community projects,” said Doug O’Brien, president and CEO of NCBA CLUSA. “When talking about growth and impact, co-ops need to consider their entire community; that’s why diversity and inclusiveness will be essential to these efforts.”
With 65,000+ cooperative establishments in the country, there is incredible potential to work together to elevate the cooperative identity and demonstrate its value to members and communities.