Helping co-ops succeed

Our clients were early investors in the Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE), a community development loan fund founded in 1975 to provide loans and technical assistance to cooperatives, community-oriented nonprofits, and worker-owned businesses. Today, CFNE serves enterprises, from small manufacturers and farmers to food co-ops and cooperative housing developments.

CFNE has enabled cooperatives to create and retain more than 16,000 jobs and over 7,500 units of affordable housing. CFNE also expanded its ability to finance minority-controlled co-ops, helping to ensure that people of color and of other marginalized backgrounds can participate fully in a democratic economy.

Unlike conventional small and medium businesses that often fail within the first five years, the vast majority of CFNE’s cooperatively owned borrowers are still in business today – with a loss rate of only 1%.

Data as of April 2025