Tools for cooperatives include online courses, decision trees, and multimedia information kits that assist with setting up cooperatives of all types, converting businesses to employee ownership, making business plans, and financing cooperatives. If your toolkit is not represented here, please contact us at CoopInfo@usda.gov.
Guide to Designing a Small Red Meat plant
Planning tool cooperatives can use to evaluate a small meat processing operation.
Guide to Starting a Food Co-op (English or Spanish)
Steps, case studies, and templates for groups starting a retail food co-op.
Heirs Property Landowners Assistance
USDA Farm Service Agency Heirs’ Property Landowners - Have you inherited land without a clear title or documented legal ownership? USDA can help you establish a farm number to gain access to a variety of programs and services.
Home Base
Guide to cooperative Housing development.
Homecare Cooperative Initiative
Resources for worker cooperatives that provide home based care to elders and people with disabilities. Includes financial models, marketing templates, sample administrative forms, recruitment and retention strategies, co-op governance, and state based market analyses.
An Introduction to Lean Co-op (Lean Start-Up Approach)
On-line course for entrepreneurs building cooperatively-owned businesses; free, six modules.
Loan Assistance Tool
The Loan Assistance Tool to check your eligibility for FSA Loans, discover FSA loan types, learn about FSA Loan requirements, and walk through the easy-to-understand instructions when completing the forms.
Mapping Opportunities for Cooperative Conversion and Start-up (Collective Action in Rural Communities)
Longitudinal research (2011-2019) by the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives presents factors that contribute to new rural co-op development, five clusters of new rural co-ops, and a state level ecosystem resource map.
New Curriculum and Training for Advancing Cooperatives in Indian Country
Education and resources to start co-ops or improve existing co-ops in Indian Country.
The North Star Curriculum
Part of fellowship programs for building community wealth through cooperative ownership in the African American communities of the Twin Cities metro area.