Solve our communities' most pressing issues together.

Help us scale our impact

Preserving affordable housing one community at a time

CDI’s New England Resident-Owned Communities (NEROC) Program helps manufactured homeowners cooperatively purchase and democratically manage their communities. We’ve helped residents at 59 manufactured-home communities across New England purchase their communities (the land underneath their homes), representing 5,800 individual homes that are now permanently affordable.

Supporting business owners in planning their exit strategy to preserve businesses and jobs

We work with business owners and their employees to think through whether conversion to employee ownership is feasible and could meet their needs, whether as a succession plan or as a growth strategy. Since 2018, our Business Ownership Solutions Program has led 28 businesses through transitions to employee-owned cooperatives, creating ownership opportunities for more than 521 workers and helping them secure over $28 million in capital to buy those businesses.

Meeting our communities’ needs through creative business models

We support startups and established cooperatives to meet their needs through technical assistance and training. Our experienced technical assistants guide startups through the process of inception, design, and launch. Our Cooperative Business Services Program has helped to form 181 co-op startups, representing more than 880 new jobs in the cooperative economy, and has assisted more than 216 existing co-ops with growth and transformation planning.

Help us reach our goal!

The Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) is a nationally recognized nonprofit and leader in the cooperative space, serving communities in the Northeast including New England and New York. With 30 years of experience in cooperative development and our deep understanding of the unique needs of the communities in our region, CDI develops and strengthens a wide range of cooperative enterprises to help us live and work better.

Who we serve

Residents and owners of manufactured-home communities

Business owners

Start-ups

Established cooperatives

Immigrants

Housing opportunities for people and equity

What others are saying...

“When I learned about the Pedal People cooperative I realized that bikes could play a bigger role in an ecology-based economy. CDI helped us take this realization to a viable business model that will provide good jobs in a democratic workplace while helping to tackle the climate crisis, reduce waste and pollution, and increase the quality of life in our downtown.” – Scott Vlaun, on Spoke Folks Co-op, a project of the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy.
“When I learned about the Pedal People cooperative I realized that bikes could play a bigger role in an ecology-based economy. CDI helped us take this realization to a viable business model that will provide good jobs in a democratic workplace while helping to tackle the climate crisis, reduce waste and pollution, and increase the quality of life in our downtown.” – Scott Vlaun, on Spoke Folks Co-op, a project of the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy.
“When I learned about the Pedal People cooperative I realized that bikes could play a bigger role in an ecology-based economy. CDI helped us take this realization to a viable business model that will provide good jobs in a democratic workplace while helping to tackle the climate crisis, reduce waste and pollution, and increase the quality of life in our downtown.” – Scott Vlaun, on Spoke Folks Co-op, a project of the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy.