Leslie Watson, Executive Director
Here is a PDF version of this year-end summary and donation pitch:
| CDS – Dec 2025 newsletter |
Bedrock federal funding for cooperative development was dramatically restructured this year, and the entire cooperative development field felt the tremors. And yet, thanks to the trust that our government partners, institutional supporters, and people like you have placed in us, CDS enters 2026 with our largest staff in a decade, an ambitious program portfolio, and the resources in place to continue helping people to meet the needs themselves and their communities through cooperation. Read on for an overview of our 2026 work—and an invitation to make a year-end gift that will be matched dollar for dollar through January 15.
- Piloting a Cooperative Strategy for Rural Childcare: With generous support from CoBank, CDS will work alongside the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives in the coming year to explore the potential for piloting employer-led childcare cooperatives in MN, IA, and WI, building on the success of this approach in North Dakota.
- Supporting Small Grocery Stores: We’re restarting our Small & Strong program for small food co-ops to provide leadership development, resources for operational improvements, and peer learning networks. We will also be building our capacity to support transitions of independent grocers to cooperative ownership as a solution to preserving grocery access in rural communities. This work will be supported by our federal RCDG award and by funds entrusted to us years ago by North Dakota’s Amazing Grains Food Co-op, as a legacy upon its closure.
- Preserving Businesses through Worker Ownership: When a business owner retires without a succession plan, the community often loses jobs, local ownership, and institutional knowledge. Worker cooperative conversions offer another path: employees become owners, businesses stay local, and communities build wealth. CDS will build on its growing capacity to support conversions in the coming year, including several in the pipeline.
- Supporting Agricultural Entrepreneurs: From specialty crop growers developing markets for perennial grain, to livestock producers exploring strategies for cull cow products, to small scale farmers aggregating their products to sell direct to consumers, we’re helping emerging farmers gain market power by working together. Our RCDG funding and support from the Ralph K. Morris Foundation allow us to continue this foundational work.
- Exploring Renewable Energy for Rural Communities: Through a new partnership with the Minnesota Farmers Union and funding from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we’re exploring distributed wind energy opportunities for farmers and rural businesses. We’ll also begin exploring new offerings around energy efficiency strategies for small retail cooperatives.
- Convening Leaders and Sharing Knowledge: For the 23rd year (and counting!), we will organize the nation’s only Senior Housing Cooperative Conference, serving over 90 co-ops across nine states. We will also continue to support Minnesota’s farm supply co-op network through event planning and coordination. And we will once again host the Livingston Leadership Retreat founded by Kevin Edberg, which brings together cooperative development center leaders across the country for learning and collaboration.
- Expanding Cooperative Education: We are developing enhanced educational resources across a range of topics, through both live webinars and a new on-demand learning system, to ensure that cooperators find the resources and learning they need to explore and strengthen their cooperative ventures.
- Supporting Co-ops’ Access to Capital: Our fiscal sponsorship program, which has facilitated more than $6 million in charitable capital to cooperatives since 2020, will continue to grow, with program improvements underway thanks to the generous support from National Co+op Grocers.
- Answering the knock on the door: We’ll keep the porch light on all year long, and stand ready to help folks who find their way to us, eager to explore a great new idea for working together to meet a shared need.
None of this work will happen without the talented, dedicated people of CDS. Last month, I introduced our newest team members, Cory Neeley and Andrea Collins. I’m excited to share that starting in January, Julia Chamberland will join our team as our newest Cooperative Development Specialist. Watch this space for an introduction to Julia as she gets underway in helping us to develop our programs and deliver technical assistance in the coming year.
The Pitch—with a Match!
Since our founding in 1985, CDS, has helped incorporate scores of cooperatives, preserved jobs and businesses, and connected thousands of people to goods and services through cooperative ownership, driven by our unwavering belief in the power of cooperation to allow communities to prosper. In this, our banner 40th year, we invite you to consider a contribution to help deepen our capacity to do all the good work we have on tap.
To date, we’ve raised nearly $50,000 toward our 40th Anniversary Campaign goal of $75,000. An anonymous donor has now generously offered to match every gift to CDS up to $15,000, for gifts received now through January 31, 2026.
Your gift—matched dollar-for-dollar through January 31—directly enables our work. It provides matching funds that unlock federal grants. It supports staff development. And it allows us to say yes when a new cooperator knocks on the door, asking for guidance to help get started.
As I write this letter on December 21—181 years to the day after the Rochdale Pioneers opened their modest store in England—I’m struck by how the cooperative impulse endures: ordinary people, pooling resources, building something together that none could build alone. That network of mutual support is evident in the different threads of resources that contribute to the tapestry of CDS’s own work, including federal grants, foundation partners, and individual donors like you, woven together in service of communities choosing cooperation.
Thank you for being part of it!
In gratitude,
Leslie Watson
Executive Director
Ways to Give
Online: Our GiveMN Donation Page
By check: Makes checks payable to the Cooperative Development Fund and mail to:
997 Ticonderoga Trail,
Eagan MN 55123
Other options: We gladly accept Donor Advised Fund (DAF) transfers, IRA Required Minimum Distributions, and gifts of stock.
Contact Vicky at vchaput@cdsus.coop if you’d like to know more.