Scale and Impact

Scale and Impact

expanding your worker cooperative business cover

Expanding Your Worker Cooperative Business: A Guide to Licensing & Franchising

This Guide is for worker owners, cooperative developers, lawyers, technical assistance providers and others thinking about expanding worker cooperative businesses. We focus specifically on expansion through licensing and franchising. Licensing and franchising are ways to allow another business to use elements of your business. New businesses can grow using elements of your business, and together, you may be able to reach economies of scale.

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2023 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report

Author(s) : Democracy at Work Institute and United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Covering two years of business progress, the 2021 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector is a report on worker-owned and democratic workplaces in the United States. This report is a co-production of Democracy at Work Institute and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. The report draws upon the latest developments in the field and deepens our understanding of the sector.

Seeding Equity Report Cover

Seeding Equity: A New Community-Based Model of Public Investment in Worker Cooperatives for Excluded Workers

In 2021, California launched Social Entrepreneurs for Economic Development (SEED), an innovative grant program fostering high-road business ownership opportunities for excluded workers (individuals who cannot access stable, gainful employment relationships and whose economic opportunities are severely constrained due to their immigration status or other significant barriers to employment).

2021 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report

Year :
Covering two years of business progress, the 2021 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector is a report on worker-owned and democratic workplaces in the United States. This report is a co-production of Democracy at Work Institute and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. The report draws upon the latest developments in the field and deepens our understanding of the sector.

How Economic Democracy Impacts Workers, Firms, and Communities

Author(s) : Laura Hanson Schlachter, Olga Prushinskaya
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How Economic Democracy Impacts Workers, Firms, and Communities  presents findings from a national survey of 1,147 workers in 82 worker cooperatives and follow-up interviews with 15 participants—the first national survey of its kind. This novel data, collected in 2017, allows us to explore the impact of workplace democracy on individuals, firms, and communities across the United States. It also provides important opportunities for future research about how worker cooperatives can promote resilience and racial equity in this moment.

Becoming Employee Owned: A Small Business Toolkit for Transitioning to Employee Ownership

Author(s) : Democracy at Work Institute
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Transitioning your small business to employee ownership can have positive impacts on employee engagement, productivity, and retention; anchor a lasting legacy for your efforts building the business; and offer a financially rewarding exit path that can be supported by experienced professional assistance.

Legacy Business: Our opportunity to build wealth, economy, and culture

Author(s) : Democracy at Work Institute
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Together with Citi Community Development, Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) is collaborating with National Urban League and key local leaders to enable more people to share in business assets in their communities– not through creating new businesses, but through leveraging and preserving assets already invested in communities, specifically by promoting shared ownership of existing businesses.