Cooperative Development Institute

10/21/2026

This community’s story is proof that cooperation can change lives! Clean drinking water and a working sewer system are basic needs that are often taken for granted. However, in many rural communities, residents do not have these basic needs met. This is because the cost of repairing or replacing water and sewer infrastructure is too high for most communities to shoulder on their own.

CDI’s Water Infrastructure Support Program (WISP) has helped to keep hundreds of homes across New England affordable and safer by connecting residents to available funding sources, including federal and state grants. For the Mountainside Community Cooperative in Camden, Maine, WISP helped residents secure $2.6 million to hook up the community to Camden’s sewer system.

“The WISP Program has been a God send,” said Margaret Jones, president of the Mountainside Community Cooperative’s board, who has lived in the park for nearly a decade. “It’s very daunting to manage government funding on our own.”

We need your help to continue making an impact on the housing crisis. We hope you will consider the Cooperative Development Institute for your end-of-year giving. By making a donation today, you can support a co-op through its entire life cycle, no matter where they are in their journey. Cooperatives have the power to transform ownership of our economies so everyone can fulfill their needs and aspirations.

Donate here: https://cdi.coop/make-a-donation/

10/20/2026

This Saturday, leaders from housing cooperatives across Maine attended CDI’s annual Maine ROC Strong event, where resident-owners networked and learned about how to better run their communities cooperatively. During the event, we heard from Gov. Mills’ office and state Rep. Cassie Lynn Julia who explained new laws that work to support residents of manufactured home communities. Thank you to all who attended! We love continuing to learn with you.

(ROC stands for Resident Owned Communities, what we call manufactured home communities that are run by resident-led cooperatives.)

10/16/2026

We are grateful to JPMorganChase for supporting the Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI), in which CDI is a leading partner, to expand services and awareness in Greater Boston of exit planning for business owners and employee ownership.

With this support, the NETI partnership will continue to build a skilled and informed network of service providers and community advocates to increase support for small business owners looking to retire and transition out of their businesses.

More than 30,000 small business owners in Massachusetts are nearing retirement age, and they employ more than 600,000 workers. Most of those owners do not have a plan for their business when they retire and they do not know who to turn to for assistance. This funding will help to address the growing threat of business closures, job losses, and the impact on our local economies.

We’re proud to be part of a broader effort to connect more Boston-area residents to good jobs, help small businesses grow, and strengthen financial stability across our communities.

Learn more about the work here:https://www.jpmorganchase.com/newsroom/press-releases/2026/3million-help-boston-residents-access-jobs-support-small-businesses-financial-stability

Cooperative Fund of the Northeast

10/14/2026

Happy 20th anniversary to our colleagues at Fuerza Laboral/Power of Workers! We are grateful for the many years of collaboration. Together we have worked to transform our economies so that workers not only have a job, but also the opportunity to own, make decisions, and live prosperous lives. Congratulations!

10/07/2026

Congratulations East Bay Fishermen's Cooperative on winning this national, highly competitive 2026 Co-op Innovation Award! Well deserved! We are proud to be supporting you in your journey and continue to root for your success!

Capital Impact Partners and National Cooperative Bank announced the winners earlier this month, naming four organizations that will receive $135,000 to advance innovative cooperative models.

Read the full press release here: https://www.capitalimpact.org/press-release/capital-impact-partners-announce-2026-co-op-innovation-awards/

10/06/2026

Don't miss the first of three webinars happening tomorrow! See you there.

What does it take to turn a business into a worker cooperative? Tune into this practical conversation about the conversion process, financing, managing change, and what business owners and employees should consider when exploring cooperative ownership as a succession strategy.

Panelists from Maine Camp Outfitters, Kevin Browne Architecture , O'Donal's Nursery will join our moderator Rob Brown from the Cooperative Development Institute for an insightful discussion.

Register at https://maine.coop/co-op-month-webinar-series-2026/

10/06/2026

How do we move cooperatives from a small-but-growing sector to holding a larger share of our economy? That’s a question the panelists attending the Worker Cooperative Conference in Boston tried to answer last week in their plenary “Visions for the Future.”

CDI’s Rob Brown, who was a panelist, shared how strong partnerships across the Northeast region can bolster knowledge and skills to support increased demand for worker cooperative conversions. Worker cooperatives are proven to build stronger, more resilient businesses that keep quality jobs in our communities.

CDI is a proud partner of the Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI), an ecosystem-building partnership of organizations and lenders with deep experience in exit-planning and ownership transitions.

Thank you US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and Democracy At Work Institute for organizing this conference and highlighting the power of cooperatives to change ownership of our economies!

Learn more about CDI's Business Ownership Solutions Program here: https://cdi.coop/business-ownership-solutions/

Today's plenary "Visions for the Future" is inspiring!

Panelists speak to home ownership and housing cooperatives, closing the racial wealth gap through worker ownership and the legal and financial resources available for cooperators in New England and across the country.

09/29/2026

This October, tune in to the Cooperative Maine Business Alliance’s 2026 Co-op Month Webinar Series, Building Better Co-ops! This free, three-part series will explore practical strategies for strengthening ownership, transparency, and engagement in cooperatives, with sessions on employee ownership, workplace culture, and financial transparency. Register for one or all three webinars for free here: https://maine.coop/co-op-month-webinar-series-2026/

See you there!

09/23/2026

Last year, Wilton-based Earth Sky + Water founder Steven Lewers, 77, began thinking about retirement, but was concerned about the company he would be leaving behind.

"A part of my thinking was, of course, my legacy; I want the company to do well after I leave, and I also felt an obligation to my employees and to the community we’ve worked in all these years," Lewers says via email.

In early 2025, Lewers called the nonprofit Cooperative Development Institute, based in Northampton, Mass. CDI provides business, management, financial and workforce assessments to help owners understand company valuation, and connects prospective owners with lenders for financing and lawyers’ representation during the transaction.

Rob Brown, Director of CDI's Business Ownership Solutions Program, talked Earth Sky + Water employees through the process of becoming a worker-owned cooperative, helping them form a steering committee.

"We were opened up to a whole new world. We went through due diligence, and came up with a whole business plan and all the financials that the CFNE wanted. We started learning about bylaws, how we would structure ourselves legally and how co-ops work. Everyone took notes and did their homework," Lewers adds.

Read the full story in the New Hampshire Business Review: https://www.nhbr.com/elements-of-ownership/

08/18/2026

Last night, the homeowners of Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative celebrated the purchase of their community with an event attended by Maine Gov. Janet Mills. Congratulations to these residents again for their amazing feat!

Hidden Circle in Jay is the first community to benefit from a strengthened ‘Right of First Refusal’ state law that went into effect last October, making it easier for residents to purchase their communities when they go up for sale.

The residents closed on the purchase of their community on July 30, 2026. Read more here: https://cdi.coop/maine-residents-purchase-community-for-1-million-preserving-affordable-housing/