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Non-extractive finance
Workplace democracy
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Rethinking risk
Community capacity
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We create non‑extractive financial infrastructure that shifts economic power to workers and communities

Worker-owners Cameron and Octavia celebrating the expansion of Phat Daddy's in Charleston, WV

The current system of finance is programmed to extract profit despite the harm this inflicts on the people we care about and the places we call home. It is a system that reinforces historical racial inequities and threatens the health of the planet we all share.

That’s why we are creating something different: a cooperative network for non-extractive finance, one that advances workplace democracy and grows the capacity of communities to determine their own economic future, starting with the workers the current system excludes.

Our investments are having real impact, right now, on the lives of workers across the country—and are laying the foundations for a new financial system in which people have control of capital, instead of capital controlling people.

Residents of a PODER Emma mobile home cooperative in Asheville, NC. [Photo: Wild and Bright]

Our national cooperative network

Stories from the ground

Case studies on how our network members are using non-extractive capital to transform the lives of workers and their communities:

A group of people smiling in front of a banner that reads "Our Community Emma"
A group of people smiling in front of a banner that reads "Our Community Emma"

Cooperatives and community power

Case studies

Poder Emma and the fight against displacement in Asheville, North Carolina

A construction worker lifts a 2x4 from a stack
A construction worker lifts a 2x4 from a stack

An ecosystem for economic democracy

Case studies

Repairing neighborhoods and creating cooperatives in Baltimore, Maryland

People gathered in a restaurant, cutting a ceremonial ribbon
People gathered in a restaurant, cutting a ceremonial ribbon

Barbecue, hustle, and culture

Case studies

Building the cooperative economy in Charleston, West Virginia

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What makes Seed Commons different?

Workers from the Sustainergy worker cooperative in Cincinnati on the job

Our impact—by the numbers

39
network member organizations
401
loans made since 2011
$97M
invested since 2011