UW Center for Cooperatives
Fostering critical thinking and understanding about cooperatives.
map of cooperatives in midwest

Research

Research Projects

Cooperative Governance Research Initiative

Thanks to generous seed funding from CoBank and the Cooperative Development Foundation, UWCC is launching the first national, cross-sector, mixed-methods study on the governance practices of U.S. cooperatives in 2021.

Collective Action in Rural Communities

Funded by the Agriculture Food Research Initiative, the goal of the project is to enhance opportunities for rural cooperative entrepreneurship by providing decision-making tools and resources to cooperative and economic developers.

photo of map of the United States highlighting Wisconsin with cooperative resources available

Latinx Cooperative Research

This research initiative aims to recognize and better understand the collective role of Latinx cooperatives in the broader co-op community. Read the full report here.

map of United States with Latinx Co-ops written on top

Cooperative Business Survey

The Annual Cooperative Business Survey program gathers basic annual financial data from cooperative firms, including patronage, equity and refund practices.

Graph of net earning before taxes by coop sector

Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives

The first-ever census of U.S. cooperatives, this project describes and quantifies the magnitude of economic activity accounted for by cooperative businesses in the United States.

Data Requests

If you are interested in using any of the data described here for academic research, please contact Courtney Berner at cberner@wisc.edu. Some of the data contain information that can be used to identify specific persons and cooperative entities. Data users must agree to maintain strict confidentiality, and to obtain approval from UWCC prior to submission for journal review.