From Fast Company :
After monitoring the success of the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland’s poorer communities, the network now wants more businesses to get on board with it. The takeover of the Cleveland Clinic laundry facility was a pilot for a larger program, the Fund for Employee Ownership, that the Evergreen Cooperatives and the Democracy Collaborative, a nonprofit focused on building community wealth, just launched to expand opportunities for co-op conversions. Initial funding of $5 million from a foundation (which is remaining anonymous) will allow the partners to replicate the model they tested with the Cleveland Clinic laundry facility: acquiring small local businesses looking for new ownership, then, once that transaction is completed, working with the employees to transition the business to a worker-owned cooperative. Over the next several years, they hope to use the initial funding to convert around seven businesses, and aim to eventually reach $30 million in funding.
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