We create non‑extractive financial infrastructure that shifts economic power to workers and communities
Worker-owners Cameron and Octavia celebrating the expansion of Phat Daddy's in Charleston, WV
The current system of finance is programmed to extract profit despite the harm this inflicts on the people we care about and the places we call home. It is a system that reinforces historical racial inequities and threatens the health of the planet we all share.
That’s why we are creating something different: a cooperative network for non-extractive finance, one that advances workplace democracy and grows the capacity of communities to determine their own economic future, starting with the workers the current system excludes.
Our investments are having real impact, right now, on the lives of workers across the country—and are laying the foundations for a new financial system in which people have control of capital, instead of capital controlling people.
Residents of a PODER Emma mobile home cooperative in Asheville, NC. [Photo: Wild and Bright]
Our national cooperative network
Stories from the ground
Case studies on how our network members are using non-extractive capital to transform the lives of workers and their communities:
Solidarity is a place: How Right To The City is bringing non-extractive investment into the fight for housing justice and community ownership
Connecting movement building and community-controlled capital, with tenant organizing stories from Minneapolis and Santa Fe.
Organizing cooperatives, organizing the community
Building power for excluded workers in Washington, DC
An infrastructure for dignity
Building a cooperative economy in Cincinnati, Ohio
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What makes Seed Commons different?
- Our investments are grounded in principles that set us apart from the traditional financial system.
- Our lending is designed, from the ground up, to be non-extractive.
- We deploy financial resources that advance workplace democracy and build community capacity.
- We leverage the deep connections and local expertise of a nationwide cooperative network.
- We center the workers and communities most excluded by the current system.
Workers from the Sustainergy worker cooperative in Cincinnati on the job