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It’s not impossible but it’s damn hard. I’m doing this with a cooperative and I can tell you there aren’t any templates or legal docs or examples. Compared to

It’s not impossible but it’s damn hard. I’m doing this with a cooperative and I can tell you there aren’t any templates or legal docs or examples. Compared to the profit adjacent (c-corp, non-profit) which have effectively the same structure of ownership just different tax structures, there’s basically nothing off the shelf for mutual aid organizations

kerkeslager 4y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but even cooperatives are basically assumed to be profit-seeking entities, no?
- ultrarunner 4y ago
  Assumed by whom? There are plenty of money-losing entities.
- nilaykumar 4y ago
  Minor pedantic point: there is sometimes a distinction made between profit and surplus, where the former is a surplus that is allocated wholly at the whims of the employer/capitalist. In this sense of the word, cooperatives are not necessarily profit-seeking, as the decision of what to do with the surplus is democratically (rather than dictatorially) controlled.
  - jehb 4y ago
    Even more pedantic, but surplus allocation is typically determined by the board of the co-op. While it's probably generally true that this functions a bit like a representative democracy, I have definitely been a member of (and worked for) cooperatives where the board is not exactly aligned with the membership about how to allocate surplus funds. Typically this comes when the co-op's board wants to make a capital investment for long-term growth when the membership may want their discount/dividends/whatever-the-organizations-payout-structure-is more than they care about expanding the scope or mission.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  By the way, if you're interested in cooperatives have a look at the Mondragon Corporation, it's a fascinating success story.
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  You're correct
- bombcar 4y ago
  Depends on the co-op (if it is something like Mondragón, it wants to "seek profit" so that it can survive; credit unions "seek profit" to pay their expenses, etc) - they will all have a goal but that goal may not be cash money in the pocket; a co-op could have the goal of making a grocery store available to the community; the co-op "profits" on the difference between buying and selling, but the "profits" go to pay for labor, land, etc, and anything in excess of that (+ rainy day fund) gets rebated back. And some co-ops are just a standard shareholder business where the shareholders are the members (credit unions are usually setup this way) so if they DO extract profit somehow or by accident, they just return it to the members. This has happened with credit unions when they unexpectedly get a windfall for some reason.
34679 4y ago
Mutual Benefit Corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual-benefit_nonprofit_corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual-benefit_nonprofit_cor...
DoreenMichele 4y ago
I'm surprised to hear this. Some years back, I looked into starting some kind of co-op, maybe a school co-op, and I remember printing off detailed instructions from the internet.

kerkeslager 4y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but even cooperatives are basically assumed to be profit-seeking entities, no?

ultrarunner 4y ago
Assumed by whom? There are plenty of money-losing entities.
nilaykumar 4y ago
Minor pedantic point: there is sometimes a distinction made between profit and surplus, where the former is a surplus that is allocated wholly at the whims of the employer/capitalist. In this sense of the word, cooperatives are not necessarily profit-seeking, as the decision of what to do with the surplus is democratically (rather than dictatorially) controlled.
- jehb 4y ago
  Even more pedantic, but surplus allocation is typically determined by the board of the co-op. While it's probably generally true that this functions a bit like a representative democracy, I have definitely been a member of (and worked for) cooperatives where the board is not exactly aligned with the membership about how to allocate surplus funds. Typically this comes when the co-op's board wants to make a capital investment for long-term growth when the membership may want their discount/dividends/whatever-the-organizations-payout-structure-is more than they care about expanding the scope or mission.
jacquesm 4y ago
By the way, if you're interested in cooperatives have a look at the Mondragon Corporation, it's a fascinating success story.
AndrewKemendo 4y ago
You're correct
bombcar 4y ago
Depends on the co-op (if it is something like Mondragón, it wants to "seek profit" so that it can survive; credit unions "seek profit" to pay their expenses, etc) - they will all have a goal but that goal may not be cash money in the pocket; a co-op could have the goal of making a grocery store available to the community; the co-op "profits" on the difference between buying and selling, but the "profits" go to pay for labor, land, etc, and anything in excess of that (+ rainy day fund) gets rebated back. And some co-ops are just a standard shareholder business where the shareholders are the members (credit unions are usually setup this way) so if they DO extract profit somehow or by accident, they just return it to the members. This has happened with credit unions when they unexpectedly get a windfall for some reason.

34679 4y ago

Mutual Benefit Corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual-benefit_nonprofit_corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual-benefit_nonprofit_cor...

DoreenMichele 4y ago

I'm surprised to hear this. Some years back, I looked into starting some kind of co-op, maybe a school co-op, and I remember printing off detailed instructions from the internet.