TYPES OF COOPERATIVES Consumer-Owned Cooperatives Consumer cooperatives are owned by the people who buy the goods or use

the services of the cooperative. Consumer co-ops include credit unions, child care cooperatives, electric and telecommunications cooperatives, food co-ops, health care coops, housing cooperatives, and many more. It is the most common form of co-op and is organized by individuals who seek to purchase goods and services. By organizing a cooperative, consumers are able to achieve prices and quality not available from for-profit businesses. Producer-Owned Cooperatives Producer cooperatives are owned by producers of farm commodities or crafts that band together to process and/or market their products . Purchasing or shared services cooperatives are cooperatives whose members are businesses that join to improve their performance and competitiveness. This form of co-op is most common in agriculture, where farmers often must band together to survive in an industry that is increasingly industrial and centralized. Before cooperatives were organized, farmers were often trapped in a situation in which processors could dictate the prices paid for crops. Worker-Owned Cooperatives Worker cooperatives are owned and democratically governed by their employees. They operate in numerous industries, including childcare, commercial and residential cleaning, food service, healthcare, technology, consumer retail and services, manufacturing, wholesaling and many others. Purchasing/Share Services Cooperatives Purchasing and Shared Services cooperatives are owned by small, independent businesses, municipalities or other like organizations that band together to enhance their purchasing power. Members of these cooperatives have found that they can adapt quickly to changing economic conditions rather than become victims of themthey can lower their operating costs by pooling purchasing power for goods and services. Hybrid Cooperatives Co-ops are generally made up of people with a common interest, but that hasnt stopped some innovators from developing multi-stakeholder hybrids, which seek to balance the sometimes conflicting needsfor example, between consumers desire for affordable products and producers desire for higher prices for their goods. In many cases, this is tied to members dual roles as producers and consumers, most often in agricultural co-ops, but not always. Credit unions Credit unions are actually consumer-owned financial services cooperatives in which every depositor becomes a member-owner. Members may attend the annual meeting and help elect a board of directors that is typically made up of community volunteers, most of them with considerable financial and other relevant areas of expertise. This is quite a difference from big international banking conglomerates with their distant millionaire investor-owners and highly paid directors who have no knowledge of or loyalty to local residents. Credit unions, as with all co-ops, come in all sizes--from a single facility with a few score members to huge, multi-branch operations that cover lots of territory and employ many local people. Community development credit unions are a special category created by the industry to specifically serve lower income communities.

Social Co-operatives This emerging type of cooperative has a social mission beyond service to its members. It may have to do with improving working conditions for immigrant women, or it may have to do with providing alternative health services at affordable costs to their community. Owned and governed by worker or consumer members, the co-op also may have a nonprofit social mission.