Cooperative Business Model

What is a Cooperative?

Cooperatives are businesses based in values of self-help, democracy, equity, and solidarity, among other values, that bring people together for a common purpose. At the most basic, a cooperative is a user-owned and controlled business that distributes benefits based on use of the business.

The International Cooperative Alliance, a non-governmental organization that unites and represents cooperatives across the globe, defines a cooperative as an “autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.”

As one scholar described, “Cooperatives are organized to serve member needs and are focused on generating member benefits . . . “[2]

 

The online program, “Cooperating for Sustainable Development” hosted by various partners at Ohio State shared the story of the Richland Gro-Op, an emerging cooperative of new farmers in northeast Ohio working to build their community.

About 3 million cooperatives around the world employ an estimated 280 million people. In the United States, there are an estimated 65,000 cooperatives operating across sectors from utilities and insurance to housing, agriculture, financial services, purchasing, and more.

A bar graph of "Cooperatives Headquartered in Ohio" showing 228 credit unions, 53 agricultural cooperatives, 36 school cooperatives, 35 other cooperatives, 30 purchasing cooperatives, 27 electric cooperatives, 16 housing cooperatives, 14 worker cooperatives, and 13 food cooperatives.

Based on research by the CFAES Center for Cooperatives at Ohio State, there are an estimated 452 cooperatives headquartered in the Buckeye state as of 2020.

There are an estimated 452 cooperatives headquartered in Ohio. Agriculture, food, and rural electric cooperatives in the state were estimated to contribute about $4 billion to the state’s economy through their employment, spending, and value-added economic contributions in 2019.

A map of the state of Ohio with multicolored dots representing cooperative business locations.A map of Ohio’s cooperative headquarters shows that cooperatives are located throughout the Buckeye state. Learn more by visiting go.osu.edu/ohiocooperatives.

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