Sign up for our monthly newsletter!

A better way forward

Explore Opportunity. Create growth.

At Co-operatives First, we support leaders looking to explore opportunities, inspire others and realize their visions.

Explore

Why us?

Starting and running a business takes energy, skill and commitment. Plus, the process can be complicated, confusing and frustrating. But we can help.

Contact Us

Our Process

Inspire

Inspiring leadership.

Identify opportunities. Understand the model. Become a leader.

LEARN MORE →

Explore

Exploring opportunity.

Explore an opportunity through our Exploring Opportunity workshop and map out the pathway to success.

LEARN MORE →

Create

Creating a new business.

Get up and running in a way that is best for you.

LEARN MORE →

Thrive

Helping your business thrive.

Get access to a variety of tools and resources to help ensure your business continues to grow and thrive.

LEARN MORE →

Build

Building your business.

Develop and grow your new business or organization.

LEARN MORE →

We mean business.

Thoughts and success stories

Retail grocery is hard — but not impossible

  The retail grocery business is hard. Large upfront capital costs for space and inventory. Small margins and stiff competition. The need for marketing, procurement,…

Read More

A Story of Many Nations

In the late 90s, Joe Carter, Director of Education for Onion Lake First Nation, recognized First Nations had similar financial services needs to their non-Indigenous…

Read More

The Common Share Podcast

Episode 12: The Backroad Diaries, with Sisan Fregene

Aasa and Kyle are joined in this episode by Sisan Fregene, who spent the summer working on The Backroad Diaries. This Co-operatives First project uses…

Read More

Powering Rural Infrastructure through Co-operatives

  Previously we’ve talked about the important role co-operatives might play in succession planning for rural businesses as baby boomer business owners begin to retire….

Read More

the-common-share-co-op-talk

Episode 11: Fred Khonje’s Five Lessons about Co-op Development

Fred Khonje’s career has spanned the areas of community economic development, non-profit co-op housing, co-op and social enterprise business development, housing policy development, and social…

Read More

Episode 10: a conversation with Dr. Brett Fairbairn

A conversation on the history of co-ops. Dr. Brett Fairbairn has been researching co-operatives for over 30 years; as a Fellow at the Centre for…

Read More

The Common Share Podcast

Episode 9: Membership Engagement

In this episode, Kyle, Dan, and Aasa discuss what membership engagement looks like for co-operatives, given how many different types of co-ops – and different…

Read More

3 essential ingredients in successful co-operative start-ups

At its most basic, every co-op needs a champion with a vision, a group with a shared interest and a market for the service or…

Read More

A forward-thinking initiative

Thanks to the generosity, support and forward thinking of the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) and Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), the organization was launched in 2016.

Our goal is to initiate a new wave of co-operative business development across rural and Indigenous communities across western Canada.

Innovation based on research

Co-operatives First is an evidence-based organization. We formed thanks to research funded by Federated Co-operatives Limited(FCL) and undertaken by a group of researchers from the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan. Many thanks to the rural and Indigenous communities across western Canada who supported this effort.