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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.

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Our Process

Inspire

Inspiring leadership.

Identify opportunities. Understand the model. Become a leader.

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Explore

Exploring opportunity.

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

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Create

Creating a new business.

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

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Thrive

Helping your business thrive.

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

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Build

Building your business.

Develop and grow your new business or organization.

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We mean business.

Thoughts and success stories

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…

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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….

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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indigenous-coops

A brief survey of Indigenous Co-ops in Canada

The co-operative business model has been relatively underutilized by Indigenous peoples in western Canada. Corporate structures and limited partnerships have more often been the go-to…

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The Common Share Podcast

Episode 8: Five ideas leveraging the co-op advantage

In this episode, Aasa sat down with Dr. Dionne Pohler to discuss her keynote speech from the Saskatchewan Co-operative Association’s 2018 conference. The keynote focused…

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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.