Canadian Co-operative Worker Federation
Email: communications@canadianworker.coop
Website: http://canadianworker.coop/
Phone: 403-276-8250
Office Headquarters Address:
104, 402 30 Ave NE, Calgary, AB, 2TE 2E3
Background
Year Founded: 1992
Mission & Mandate:
– To work in solidarity with our members to achieve our Vision of a Co-operative Economy.
– To support the development of new worker co-ops
– To strengthen the Federation to animate the worker co-operative movement
– To represent and promote the Canadian worker co-op movement in Canada and internationally
Description: The Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation is a national, bilingual grassroots membership organization of and for worker co-operatives, related types of co-operatives (multi-stakeholder co-ops and worker-shareholder co-ops), and organizations that support the growth and development of worker co-operatives. CWCF was incorporated in 1992.
Sectors
– Addressing Systemic Racism
– Business & Financial Literacy
– Cleantech
– Community Arts & Media
– Community Economic Development
– Co-operative, Community & Social Enterprise
– Education & Skills Development
– Employment & Training
– Food Security
– Gender Equity
– Green Buildings & Retrofits
– Health & Well-being
– Indigenous Social Entrepreneurship
– Renewable Energy
– Sustainable Consumer Products
– Sustainable Food, Fisheries & Agriculture
– Sustainable Resource Management
– Sustainable Transportation & Infrastructure
– Youth
Fund Characteristics
Tenacity Works Fund
AUM: $425,000
Vintage year: 2000
Closing year: NA
Geographic scope: Pan-Canadian
Committed capital: $270,000
Average investment size: $25,000
Investee type: Worker co-operatives and multi-stakeholder co-ops with substantial worker control
Investment stage: Seed, Early, Mid, Late
Financial Impact
Total capital investmented: $1.8 million
Total capital leveraged: $5.4 million
Number of investments made: 37
Other:
In addition to the Tenacity Works Fund, CWCF also administers an RRSP-TFSA program to enable worker co-ops, other types of co-ops, CED Investment Funds and others offer RRSP-TFSA’s to their investors. Currently CWCF has over $70 Million under administration in this program. See this link for more information.
Success Story
Shift Delivery Co-op
Vancouver, BC | August 2011
Financing: $3,000 technical assistance grant from CWCF to research a membership accessibility fund
Shift Delivery was launched to reduce the environmental impact of consumer purchases and to create green jobs. Conventional deliveries would have created 70 tonnes of CO2 emissions that instead were avoided by the implementation of Shift Delivery’s “trikes,” which stands for “truck bikes.” CWCF has greatly helped with many challenges faced by the new co-op. In addition to learning of the importance of regular check-ins between members in order to facilitate conversation of both problems and successes, Shift Delivery has taken advantage of the larger network of co-ops by learning about how they have dealt with similar challenges.
“So that’s one of the things we’ve gone through recently is dealing with the founders leaving and some challenges around that, so being able through CWCF to get in contact with other co-ops that have been through very similar situations, and ask them how they dealt with it.”
– Joel Gibbs, member of the co-op
