Survey of Co-operative Capital: Unprecedented List of Co-operative capital Tools
The first edition of the Survey of Co-operative Capital examines the sources and structures of co-operative capital for both start-up and growth and expansion activities. It provides the first-ever, comprehensive list of the debt and equity instruments used to finance the assets and operations of co-operatives.
This Survey was commissioned by the Alliance’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Co-operative Capital. The Survey was conducted by the Filene Research Institute and authored by A. Michael Andrews.
Access to trade credit and bank loans can be more difficult for co-operatives than for other businesses. However, many co-operatives have evolved considerably from the basic funding model of nominal value members’ shares and internally generated capital and now use a range of instruments to raise capital from members and non-members.
Examples of how this can be achieved include reserving common, equity-like instruments – those with voting rights – for members while creating multiple classes of shares. Other options include offering of debt instruments to non-members.
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