In a world that seems primed for disaster and crisis, our work here at Seed Commons only feels more urgent. Now more than ever, communities across the country need the non-extractive financial infrastructure we are creating together as a cooperative.

At the top of this report is a photograph from our annual all-network gathering this November. Representatives from our 39 members, as well as from our sister networks in Latin America, came together in Baltimore for two days of peer-to-peer education, strategic reflection, and planning for the years ahead, as well as tour of the thriving local worker cooperative sector that our local member, the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy, has played a key role in building.

For those who attended, the gathering was affirmation of the possible future we are building through our shared work, and of how real community economic power can provide an antidote to fear and insecurity. In what follows, we’ve collected highlights from the last year of momentum, innovation, and vision that is accelerating on the ground with our members and across our cooperative. For those of you reading who invest in or support our work, we thank you for making all of this possible.

Download our 2024 Impact Report as a PDF, or continue reading below

“Before [here] I worked at a chicken processing plant. I got a raise one or two times, at fifty cents, and that was it. I didn't receive another raise for the next four years. I trained people there and eventually they became my boss. [It’s] different here, because I feel like I’m treated like a person, and it’s not a big corporation where the CEO is making millions and millions and millions while the workers are getting peanuts. [...] I don’t have nobody chasing me around because of the color of my skin or because I’m tall or because I’m big. People don’t really think that that happens these days, but it does. I was a fork truck driver, I was at that company four or five years—it was Barack Obama’s first presidency. People were excited about that, they couldn’t contain themselves. But that next morning when we went into work, it was like a firing squad on Black males, it was boom, boom one after the other. It was like a nightmare what I went through. But I guess I had to go through that to really appreciate what’s going on here, and what they are trying to build, here in Cincinnati and around the country.”

—Zeke Coleman

Worker-Owner and Food Hub Manager,
Our Harvest Cooperative in Cincinnati, Ohio

(quoted in WORKS FOR ALL: Cincinnati's Co-op Economy, 2023, by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young)

Too often, when disaster strikes, the most marginalized communities are the most vulnerable, both to the immediate dangers, and to the predatory displacement that comes in their wake.

When Hurricane Helene brought unprecedented devastation to the mountains of Western North Carolina, the low-income immigrant communities that Seed Commons member PODER Emma serves and organizes were hit hard. But all the work PODER Emma had done before the storm to strengthen their community translated into resilience, and the capacity to drive the recovery effort from the bottom-up, led by those most affected.

The Chispas worker cooperative, built to handle the day-to-day maintenance needs of PODER Emma’s growing portfolio of resident-owned mobile home parks, turned into the core of a roving chainsaw brigade, clearing massive amounts of downed trees and branches. PODER Emma’s newly acquired community economic hub—a 20,000 sq. ft. compound of three commercial buildings spread over an acre and a half of land—became, in the middle of its renovations to house a new sewing cooperative and other projects, a distribution warehouse and emergency meeting center, helping coordinate volunteers, collect supplies, and meet the immediate needs of a vulnerable population.

In the face of crisis, the Seed Commons’ model—designed not just around capital access, but around local community capacity to deploy and steward that capital to meet community needs—delivers the power and resilience needed to weather the storms.

When a long-time business owner decides to retire or sell, uncertainty and fear for workers and communities can skyrocket. But when the local infrastructure to drive conversions to worker cooperatives exists, these can instead be moments of possibility and hope.

Numerous members of Seed Commons are working to build this kind of infrastructure, creating education around cooperative transitions for exiting owners and excited workers, and offering non-extractive financing to make the sale of businesses to workers a reality. In 2024, momentum around conversions accelerated across the Seed Commons cooperative.

In Lexington, Kentucky, the Patchwork Cooperative Loan Fund successfully completed its first business conversion, helping the workers of Broomwagon Bikes become worker-owners of Lexington’s first cooperative bike shop.

In Maryland, Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy completed two conversions in its pipeline, helping transform architectural and ecological design firm Envirocollab from a single-proprietor business into a growing woman-owned worker cooperative, and making it possible for the workers at The Wine Source, the city’s largest and most respected fine wine, beer, and spirits shop, to become worker-owners when the longtime founding owner decided to retire. This latter conversion, mobilizing millions of dollars on behalf of the workers of the business, is one of the largest deals to date for Seed Commons.

In Washington, D.C., the DC Solidarity Economy Loan Fund is building the intentional capacity to help long-standing community businesses preserve their legacy through conversions to worker-ownership, including at Sankofa Video and Books, a legendary Black business and cultural center.

Any real solution to the ecological crisis unfolding around us need to be grounded in the power of ordinary people to envision and build a sustainable future that benefits them. Seed Commons is proud to be on the forefront of financing this kind of green transition for workers and communities.

In 2024, Seed Commons member Co-op Cincy helped Sustainergy, a union worker cooperative, to expand its operations into higher margin solar installation work, adding to its already impressive portfolio of energy efficiency services, and unlocking higher wages for its worker-owners.

We also made it possible in 2024 for two different compost cooperatives—Rust Belt Riders, supported by Cleveland Owns, and Farmer Pirates, supported by Cooperation Buffalo—to invest in the machinery needed to address growing demand for zero waste solutions, diverting millions of pounds from landfills.

Our member Cooperation Hudson Valley also made an investment in zero waste infrastructure, supporting the expansion of Found and Fixed, a worker cooperative focused on adaptive reuse of discarded or unwanted furniture, into their first storefront workshop and studio. And in Washington, D.C., Swamp Rose, an ecologically friendly native plant nursery and landscaping cooperative, worked with our member the D.C. Solidarity Economy Loan Fund to invest in new vehicles and equipment to grow their business.

As a green transition from below becomes ever more urgently necessary, we are proud to be able to help workers and communities dream about the future for the planet they want to see, and help them access the resources needed to build it.

With skyrocketing rents and displacement threatening so many of our communities, Seed Commons and its local members are increasingly working to channel non-extractive investment into community control of land and housing, alongside our continuing support for democratic workplaces.

This looks different in different places—in 2024, for instance, our member Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy helped the young environmental justice organizers of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust build the first permanently affordable, net-zero passive housing in the country, while also making a $5 million investment in the reconstruction of vacant houses across West Baltimore by the Water Bottle worker cooperative, creating jobs for workers dealing with the challenges of recovery and incarceration, and helping VOLAR—Village of Love and Resistance finance the renovation of a new East Baltimore housing cooperative and organizing center.

In Asheville, North Carolina, member PODER Emma used non-extractive financing to acquire the land for what will become the brand new Carolina Wren Cooperative, a resident-owned mobile home park and the latest addition to their growing portfolio of community-controlled housing.

In Puerto Rico, Seed Commons helped Centro para la Reconstrucción del Hábitat advance their comprehensive program to restore vacant and abandoned properties to community use and ownership. Co-op Cincy, meanwhile, helped Rental Partnerships, a community land trust with an innovative model for resident-managed rental equity in affordable housing, acquire its largest property to date.

Creating worker co-ops in the food service and food production sectors is a powerful strategy for bringing democracy, dignity, and worker power into an industry often defined by exploitation and precarity. In 2024, Seed Commons’ members expanded our already substantial portfolio of cooperative restaurants and food producers.

In Charleston, West Virginia, our member NEW WV helped Phat Daddy’s expand from their original location as a trackside BBQ stand into a full service restaurant, one that also serves as a hub for the growing ecosystem of worker-owned food service projects in the area. Meanwhile, Regenerate Atlanta financed a major expansion in production capacity for Pecan Milk Co-op, enabling this business that connects Black Southern foodways with burgeoning demand for plant-based milks to create a shelf-stable version of their bestselling product. In another expansion, Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance helped Masa Cooperativa finance the purchase of an industrial tortilla press, vastly increasing their ability to ramp up direct to consumer sales. Repaired Nations in Oakland made a non-extractive loan so Hasta Muerte Coffee could make their cafe more efficient. And Co-op Cincy helped launch the new Topia Coffee Co-op.

2025 is looking great, as well. For instance, The Working World in NYC is eagerly awaiting the doors opening at Boyfriend, “a coffee & cocktail cooperative for gay gals & their pals.” And in Baltimore, Seed Commons will be a co-sponsor this coming summer of the first ever national convening of cooperative restaurants, co-organized by Red Emma’s and the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy.

MEMBERSHIP MILESTONES

In 2024, we welcomed a new member to Seed Commons, British Columbia’s Solid State Community Industries, a cooperative business incubator building power for marginalized youth.

Solid State was also one of the Seed Commons members who made their first non-extractive loan in 2024. Other members taking this step include Oakland’s Repaired Nations, Olympia’s Northwest Cooperative Development center, Denver’s Rocky Mountain Ownership Center, Lexington, KY’s Patchwork Cooperative Loan Fund, and the Austin Cooperative Business Association in Texas.

We also welcomed two organizations into full voting membership in the Seed Commons cooperative: Cooperation Hudson Valley and the D.C. Solidarity Economy Loan Fund, housed at the Beloved Community Incubator.