RIVERWEST
Owned and democratically
controlled by members.
COOPERATIVE
ALLIANCE
SERVICES
Our team has over 75 years of experience forming and maintaining cooperatives. We can provide a range of consulting services to help cooperatively-minded organizations at any stage of development, from start-up to long-term visioning.
Education
In order to accomplish the broad goals of enhancing and promoting cooperative-based commerce and cooperatively held resources, RCA has made education a central tenet of its operations. There is an immense potential for cooperatives to transform Milwaukee into a model for self-sufficiency and economic democracy in the 21st century.
To achieve this, the RCA has created programming to both familiarize people with the cooperative model and enhance their ability to wield the model as a tool for their own success.
Professional Services
We offer professional and consulting services including but not limited to cross marketing and shared marketing expenses, hands on and catered development planning, shared design/materials services, “technical assistance” and business development/expansion, capital structure plan design, and reference for Legal and Accounting services.
Additionally, we offer training services including but not limited to access to facilitators for Board, officer, and collective management trainings, classes and workshops, lectures and speaking presentations, and regional co-op development/networking opportunities.
Creation & Conversion
A fundamental tenet of the RCA is to work with local groups to organize and found their own cooperatives.
We are interested in converting traditional businesses to the cooperative model. There are significant incentives for business owners to sell to their workers, not least of which being the lack of capital gains taxes on such transactions.
We aren't exclusive to Milwaukee: we have worked with groups at a regional and national level. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us.