Cooperation Buffalo is a community-led resource center, a team of cooperative business developers and educators, and a community-controlled non-extractive loan fund. We mobilize workers to achieve economic security through cooperative business ownership, generating wealth and power in communities most affected by inequality. Learn more
OUR IMPACT
We engage our community in training and education in cooperative economics and do work to grow economic democracy and an ecosystem of cooperatively owned enterprises in Buffalo.
We support the start-up of new worker cooperatives and conversions of existing businesses to worker ownership that meet the criteria of our Values Filter. We offer technical assistance to other cooperatives when we can.
We circulate capital to cooperatives in a non-extractive way through the Seed Commons Community Wealth Cooperative. We are also building out a local loan fund based on the Seed Commons principles.
Cooperation Buffalo is led by Buffalo cooperators: community members with experience launching and working in worker cooperatives, housing cooperatives, and community land trusts. Cooperatives that receive support from Cooperation Buffalo join the governance of the organization and the loan fund, participating in democratic decisions regarding loans, long-term strategy, and what services to provide.
Join the movement for economic democracy:
LEARN ABOUT COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS
START A WORKER COOPERATIVE
SELL YOUR BUSINESS TO ITS WORKERS
APPLY FOR A LOAN FOR YOUR CO-OP
Cooperation Buffalo is a member of Seed Commons
40+
Locally Rooted Member Funds
The Seed Commons community wealth cooperative gives the power of big finance to small, community-centered actors, creating a national network that makes local investments that serve people rather than extracting from them. Learn about our network of locally rooted member loan funds.
$45M
Non-Extractive Loans
We invest in marginalized communities that have faced the brunt of the extractive economy, deindustrialization, and systemic discrimination, making community-controlled finance available to cooperatively-owned businesses that create jobs, build wealth, and challenge inequality.
12,765
Workers Served
Over 12,000 workers have received funding from Seed Commons, supporting democratically-run, worker-owned businesses. 99% of the Seed Commons portfolio is
invested in businesses that are low-income owned. And 9 out of 10 borrowers are BIPOC.
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As of December 31, 2023