Year End Summary – and Happy New Year

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Here is our year-end roundup for 2023, our sixth year of operation. 

In 2023:

  • We started the year with a party to celebrate our fifth anniversary. 
  • We provided grants totaling $74,930 to two community based organizations doing worker cooperative support (Worker Justice WI y MadWorC).
  • We provided 3 grants for $10k each to cooperatives in development, to spend on the various costs of starting a business such as legal support, business planning, marketing, and training/education. 
  • We presented our first Co-op 201 session, which dives deeper into actually starting a worker cooperative than our ever-popular Co-op 101 (which we continued to hold).
  • We also presented our first Co-op Financing session, with guest presenters from Shared Capital Cooperative y KIVA Madison/WWBIC, about the various options that exist for financing a new worker cooperative (an important topic for anyone developing a co-op).
  • We co-presented with Worker Justice Wisconsin y MadWorC at the Association of Cooperative Educators Institute about Madison’s worker cooperative ecosystem.
  • We attended the YWCA Racial Justice Summit to promote MCDC’s resources.
  • We celebrated Madison’s newest worker co-op, El Chisme, at their launch party and celebrated them again at Worker Justice Wisconsin’s Posadas event.

We’re looking forward to continuing to support worker cooperative development in 2024. As always, be in touch with your cooperative ideas and plans.

Wishing everyone a happy new year,

MCDC

Highlights in photo form:

Members of Iron Roots Cooperative serve food at our 5 Year Celebration.
Rek Kwawer from MadWorC, Frida Ballard from Worker Justice Wisconsin, and Charity Schmidt from MCDC present on Madison’s worker cooperative ecosystem at the 2023 ACE Institute in Puerto Rico.
Members of El Chisme Cooperative with Worker Justice Wisconsin staff at the El Chisme launch party.