“This is about using our collective power to create a new financial institution,” says Kate Khatib, co-director of Seed Commons and a worker-owner at Red Emma’s, a cooperative restaurant and bookstore in Baltimore. “We’re fundraising collectively, raising the investment capital collectively and figuring out how to deploy that capital most effectively in our individual communities.”
Since inception in 2016, Seed Commons has enabled its members to make more than a hundred loans so far, adding up to more than $10 million. The first loan made through the network was to Baltimore ice cream maker Taharka Brothers, which recently celebrated the completion of its conversion from a nonprofit social enterprise to a fully-fledged worker-owned cooperative.
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