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use case

Seed Commons’ non-extractive community wealth management for cooperative businesses

The Seed Commons platform illustrates how communities can invest in cooperative businesses in a manner that can benefit all both from a financial investment and social perspective.
Seed Commons’ non-extractive community wealth management for cooperative businesses
source of visual
  • Latin America, USA/Canada, The Working World, a member of the Seed Commons network, Offline
    • Where did this use case occur?
  • 2004 - ongoing
    • When did this use case occur?
  • 30+ cooperative funds across the USA
    • Who were some of the key collaborators
  • 3,000+ worker-owners [1]
    • How many people participated?
  • Cooperative
    • What are some keywords?

What was the problem?

The extractive economy has put strenuous expectations on local businesses, leading to systemic discrimination for such smaller-scale businesses and communities as a whole. 

How does the community approach the problem?

As a national network of locally rooted, non-extractive loan funds, Seed Commons strives to build the infrastructure necessary for a just, democratic and sustainable new economy. It is run by a board of individual representatives that are members of the cooperatives that make up Seed Commons according to their shared values [2].

Process
Building a network of shared value , Non-extractive funding
Technique
“Seed Commons takes in investment as a single fund, then shares that capital for local deployment by and for communities, lowering risk while increasing impact. Seed Commons also shares backend services and a comprehensive, peer-based learning system to give each member the tools necessary to succeed accessing capital like market players, yet deploying it using local community relationships.” [3]. 
Tool

No Specified Tools

What were the results?


• 20+ local funds are part of the Seed Commons network in 2023
• $15.3M deployed under community control in 100+ cooperative projects nationwide

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How participatory was it?

Empower

Member cooperatives collectively make decisions running Seed Commons.

What makes this Use Case unique?

'This use case focuses on an alliance of funds that invest in cooperative businesses throughout the US. It aims to bring visibility not only to the organization itself but also to the support network it has formed and the member cooperatives it represents. In this regard, it shares similarities with the Michigan Alliance of Timebanks case. Both cases can be seen as examples of "higher-level" governance, where organizations unite and merge to form a broader entity with enhanced capabilities.' -Sem

Learn more here

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    Сommunity Voice