In the loosest sense, a co-op is any voluntary organization composed of a group of individuals (or organizations) formed for their mutual (generally, financial) benefit. A familiar example is a group of roommates who rent an apartment together to save money.

These informal associations and the more formal ones discussed below all share a number of common features.

• They all are democratic, volunteer associates.
• They are formed for mutual financial benefit (to save money or to increase buying power); in short, they are businesses
• They have no owners other than their members
• They are non-for-profit organizations; what would be profit in other organizations is returned to the member/owners.

Co-ops are all around us---they are everywhere! They include:

• Credit unions
• Mutual insurance companies (Invented by Ben Franklin in 1752)
• Housing Co-ops
• Rural electric power co-ops
• Consumer goods co-ops (REI comes to mind)
• Distribution co-ops (Ace hardware)
• Producer co-ops (Sunkist, Land'O Lakes)

For more information on the various types of co-ops in the US and around the world check out the National Cooperative Business Association and the International Cooperative Alliance sites.