About us

We are the Cooperative League of the United States and we work to build a more inclusive economy through Cooperatives around the world.

We are the Cooperative League of the United States.

And we are in Peru working to develop, advance and protect cooperative enterprise.

Our vision

NCBA CLUSA works to build a better world and a more inclusive economy that empowers people to contribute to shared prosperity and well-being for themselves and future generations. By leveraging the shared resources of the cooperative movement, we seek to engage, partner and empower people from all walks of life, particularly those left behind by a changing economy and facing the greatest economic and social barriers. We achieve this vision through collaborative partnerships in development, advocacy, public awareness and thought leadership.

Our story

More than 100 years building an inclusive economy

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2015

NCBA CLUSA formally launches its U.S.-Cuba Cooperative Working Group in March, positioning the organization to better support Cuban economic progress.
NCBA CLUSA receives its first grant from the Starbucks Foundation in April to support the livelihoods of coffee farmers in Indonesia.
En octubre se lleva a cabo la primera reunión del Grupo de Trabajo Interagencial sobre Desarrollo Cooperativo, una disposición que NCBA CLUSA trabajó arduamente para asegurar la inclusión en la Ley Agrícola.
NCBA CLUSA is working with lawmakers to create the long-awaited bipartisan Congressional Cooperative Business Caucus in December, co-chaired by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI).

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2014

NCBA CLUSA leads the fight to successfully restore RCDG funding for credit unions. Membership in credit unions in the U.S. exceeds 100 million in June.

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2010

NCBA CLUSA's flagship Feed the Future project, Yaajeende, is launched in Senegal, based on a comprehensive approach based on the four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization and governance.

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2000

NCBA CLUSA is proposing and sponsoring the .coop Top Level Domain. Many cooperatives and similar trade groups around the world, including the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), endorsed the proposal. The technical infrastructure for the .coop TLD was developed by the worker cooperative Poptel in the United Kingdom and became operational on January 30, 2002.

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1994

Cooperativa Café Timor is established with support from NCBA CLUSA. Today, CCT offers its 22,000 member-owners access to global markets, including Starbucks, better prices and medical care through its network of health clinics.

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1986

The "CLUSA approach" to sustainable cooperative development was developed in Niger in the mid-1980s. The method is characterized by local decision-making and empowerment, and was developed by Papa Sene, a veteran innovator of NCBA CLUSA.

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1985

CLUSA cambia su nombre a National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA).

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1974

The Cooperative Hall of Fame is established. Members receive the highest honor in the cooperative community.

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1967

Working in the southeastern U.S., CLUSA takes on a pilot project as part of the War on Poverty leading to the formation of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

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1953

CLUSA's international arm is launched in response to a request from the Indian Cooperative Union. Through its first overseas office in New Delhi, CLUSA helped develop and strengthen dairy, fertilizer, agricultural machinery and other cooperatives in the country.

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1944

CLUSA se une a otros líderes cooperativos para lanzar una campaña de educación pública para defender el tratamiento fiscal de las cooperativas en el Congreso.
The Cooperative Development Foundation is formed, initially as the CLUSA Freedom Fund, to help provide wartime relief through the development of cooperatives and other self-help initiatives in Europe. The first grant ($30,000) helps launch the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE).

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1935

9 out of 10 rural homes are without electric service. President Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to electrify rural America through the use of rural electric cooperatives.

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1921

The League forms a legal department and successfully lobbies for the passage of a cooperative federation charter in New York, then incorporates as the Cooperative League of the United States of America (CLUSA).

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1916

The Cooperative League of America, the precursor organization to NCBA CLUSA, is formally organized.

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