Boston Ujima Project

Margaret Killjoy on September 24, 2020

Lending Member

Boston Ujima Project

Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Ujima Project is organizing neighbors, workers, business owners and investors to create a community-controlled economy in Greater Boston.

The Boston Ujima Project is an ecosystem designed to strengthen local economic control and recenter economic power in low income communities and communities of color in Boston. Ujima (oo-JEE-mah) is a Swahili word, the celebrated Kwanzaa principle for “collective work and responsibility.” Ujima is an inspiration to take responsibility for our communities, to see our neighbor’s problems as our own, and to build collective power to solve them together. Through Ujima, the Boston Ujima Project is fostering a new economy based on democracy, sustainability, and justice.

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The Wind River Food Sovereignty Project

Margaret Killjoy on September 24, 2020

Apprentice Member

The Wind River Food Sovereignty Project

Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

The Wind River Food Sovereignty Project works to address the need for access to local, healthy, affordable food on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. They address this need by providing an systemic organizational structure and support for food production and distribution on the reservation, based on the accomplishments of Blue Mountain Associates in building home gardens and organizing farmers markets.

Co-op Hudson Valley

Margaret Killjoy on September 24, 2020

Lending Member

Co-op Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley, New York

Co-op Hudson Valley supports workers and grassroots projects that want to start and grow cooperative businesses while working to strengthen the regional cooperative ecosystem. They do this by pairing non-extractive loans with technical assistance and coaching, which helps projects thrive. Co-op HV works with people who have been excluded from economic security to create opportunities in their own community for collective ownership and dignified work.

Recent Loans

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers

$50,000
October 1, 2019

Line of credit

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers

$14,270
May 20, 2018

Loan for a hoop house to expand production

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers

$113,400
January 1, 2017

Financing to convert the farm to worker-ownership

PODER Emma

Margaret Killjoy on September 23, 2020

Full Member

PODER Emma

Asheville, North Carolina

PODER Emma develops community ownership in the Emma neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina. PODER Emma creates tools and strategies to prevent displacement and preserve the tight-knit nature of mobile home communities which keep their families safe.

Emma residents have a deep love for where they live, and PODER Emma and partner grassroots organizations have been working for more than a decade to build deep relationships; strengthen leadership skills and capacity in ourselves and our neighbors; and to cultivate a sense of place, belonging, identity, and culture. Over the years they have created community solutions to problems in their neighborhood that have created a collective belief that when community comes together it can improve their lives for themselves and future generations. 

Co-op Cincy

Margaret Killjoy on September 22, 2020

Full Member

Co-op Cincy

Cincinnati, Ohio

Co-op Cinci creates an economy that works for all — that supports family-sustaining jobs, provides business ownership opportunities for underserved and historically marginalized people, and is accountable to the communities that drive it.

Recent Loans

Click here for a full list of loans made through Co-op Cincy

Our Harvest

$130,000
December 19, 2019

Refinancing and expansion

CareShare

$20,000
October 18, 2019

A second startup loan for a cooperative daycare

Cincy Cleaning Co

$15,000
October 11, 2019

Startup capital for a residential cleaning cooperative

Sustainergy

$32,500
March 9, 2018

Equipment purchase loan

Cooperation Richmond

Margaret Killjoy on September 22, 2020

Full Member

Cooperation Richmond

Richmond, California

Cooperation Richmond builds community controlled wealth through worker-owned and community-owned cooperative businesses and enterprises by and for low-income communities and communities of color in Richmond whose wealth has been extracted.

They encourage, incubate, and facilitate the launch and successful operation of diverse cooperative enterprises in Richmond operated by local residents, especially those of us coming from legacies of systemic marginalization and barred opportunity.

Recent Loans

Rich City Rides

$15,000
November 21, 2017

Store inventory line of credit

Rich City Rides

$20,000
September 25, 2017

Pilot loan for bike store improvements.

Detroit Community Wealth Fund

Margaret Killjoy on September 22, 2020

Full Member

Detroit Community Wealth Fund

Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit Community Wealth Fund supports grassroots projects in the Detroit area that desire to become worker-run cooperatives. In addition to offering non-extractive loans, they run workshops and a ten-week cooperative academy.

Cooperation Buffalo

Margaret Killjoy on September 22, 2020

Full Member

Cooperation Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Cooperation Buffalo is a community-led resource center, a team of cooperative business developers and educators, and a community-controlled non-extractive loan fund. They mobilize workers to achieve economic security through cooperative business ownership, generating wealth and power in communities most affected by inequality.

Recent Loans

Rose Garden Early Childhood Center, Inc.

$87,500
December 22, 2017

Loan for the conversion of a childcare center

Southern Reparations Loan Fund

Margaret Killjoy on September 22, 2020

Full Member

Southern Reparations Loan Fund

The South

The Southern Reparations Loan Fund (SRLF) is a network of non-extractive loan funds that make loans to community-based businesses anchored in the most marginalized Southern communities. All of SRLF’s work is done within a reparations framework, with the goal of building self-reliant, resilient, and just cooperative solidarity economies in marginalized communities in the South.

LA Coop Lab

Margaret Killjoy on September 22, 2020

Full Member

L.A. Co-op Lab

Los Angeles, California

L.A. Co-op Lab is a collective that builds capacity for worker ownership in Los Angeles. They host a variety of workshops and events where aspiring worker-owners can learn how to start and sustain a cooperative business, together.

Their aim is to advance worker-ownership as one way to push back against inequality, gentrification, and the gig economy by helping people who are often excluded from good jobs to collectively create their own and meet community needs.

Recent Loans

Ride On!

$19,247
August 6, 2018

Bike store improvements

Ride On!

$19,000
August 6, 2018

Bike shop inventory line of credit