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The USFWC Co-op Clinic has a network of peer advisors, all with strong social and professional ties, who provide technical assistance services to worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces.
Though we can support you in all-around small business areas, we specialize in technical assistance that cooperatives need specifically: decision-making, co-op finances, boards, bylaws and more.
Our staff and peer advisors can help you…
- Create a roadmap for starting or converting to a cooperative.
- Find the right structure and governance for your democratic workplace.
- Get training in cooperative finances.
- Become loan ready.
- Finish your business plan.
- Create policies that work for your team.
- AND MORE!
Learn More
How it Works
Complete this short Request Support form, which allows you to instantly book a 30 minute intake meeting with staff.
Lots more info in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and don’t forget to check out the Peer Advisor and Staff Bios, and the Packages and Pricing in the sections below, which can serve as a starting place to find what you need.
Areas of Technical Assistance
Governance
- Drafting Bylaws
- Drafting Articles
- Roles and Responsibility for Boards
- Board basics
- Rights & Responsibilities, Decision Clarity
- Strategic planning and member engagement
- Good Meetings and Facilitation
Human Resources
- Development of Accountability Systems
- Communication/Coaching
- Onboarding & Orientation
- Conflict Resolution Training
Financial
- Setting up chart of accounts and accounting filing system
- Providing a draft Bookkeeping Manual
- Setting up Payroll and HR Policies
- Consulting with end of year tax accountant
- Accounting facilitation and training
- Open Book Management
- Help in applying for Loan Financing
Technology
- Using Project Management Tools
- CRM tools
- Social Media Tools
- Video editing tools
Marketing
- Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy
- Brand Strategy and identity
- Business development (market making)
Start-up Support
- Business Model Development
- Business Plans
- Feasibility Studies
- Governance
- Worker Co-op 101
Next level support
- Project Management Training
- Anti Oppression Training
- Preventing Board Burn Out
Meet the Peer Advisors and Staff
Our professional and culturally competent Peer Advisors are here to provide you with high-quality technical assistance based on their lived experience working in and developing cooperative businesses.
Meet the Peer Advisors:
[EN] = English speaking
[SP] = Spanish speaking
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Maru Bautista [EN/SP]
- Mavery Davis [EN]
- Peggy Fogarty [EN]
- Devra Gartenstein [EN]
- Julian Hill [EN/SP]
- McKenzie Jones [EN]
- brandon king [EN]
- Randon Martin [EN]
- Daniella Preisler [EN/SP]
- James Razsa [EN]
- Iliana Reinhardt [EN/SP]
- Andrew Stachiw [EN]
- Stephen Rye Switzer [EN]
- Damon Terrell [EN]
- Esther West [EN]
- Annie Winkler [EN]
- Emma Yorra [EN/SP]
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Maru Bautista [EN/SP] she/ella
Maru Bautista is an independent cooperative consultant with more than a decade of experience in group facilitation; project design and implementation; program, budget & staff management; worker cooperative development; curriculum development; community engagement and public policy advocacy. Formerly the Director of the Cooperative Development Program at the Center for Family Life, she supported the immigrant community of New York City start and run worker cooperatives in the domestic sector. Most notable projects include: Brightly, a worker cooperative franchise for domestic workers, and upandgo.coop, an online booking platform for immigrant-led cooperatives. Maru is board chair of the Democracy at Work Institute (institute.coop), and for 6 years was board member of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (usworker.coop). Maru was born and raised in Puebla, Mexico.
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Mavery Davis [EN] he/him
Mavery is breaking poverty and creating wealth. CPA by day, a husband, father, community organizer, a motivator, and founder of the Financial Literacy Bootcamp (FLBC). Through the FLBC he works with kids in West Virginia to understand the psychology of money and the basics of finances, to plant the seeds of collective, community wealth and abundance. For this work, Mavery earned the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs Trail Blazer-Pioneer Award (2020). In addition to his professional accountant certification, Mavery also holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree with a concentration in Accounting from the HBCU West Virginia State University (WVSU), and a Master’s of Science Degree with a concentration in Public Accounting from Strayer University (2015). Mavery is an Adjunct Professor of Accounting at WVSU, guest teacher at Makeshop Design Lab, serves on the National Society of Black Certified Public Accountants (NSBCPA) Board of Directors, and collaborator in All Things Workshops! Additionally, Mavery has been recognized as a Top 40 under 40 Black CPA by the NSBCPA (2021) and a Hometown Hero by WV Can’t Wait (2022). In his current Role, as the Director of Lending for NEW WV, he brings a passion for uplifting people and connecting them to the resources they need to be supported along their cooperative business journey.
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- Peggy Fogarty [EN] She/Her Peggy Fogarty is an expert with 20+ years of experience in cooperative business consulting, organizational governance, and leadership development. Her mission is to build and strengthen democratically governed enterprises to achieve economic justice and community empowerment. She is a strategic systems thinker with a successful track record of consulting and training over 250 organizations through various stages of development. She is instrumental in bringing organizational vision and missions to life by listening, articulating, inspiring, empowering, and uniting people to achieve common goals. As a skilled facilitator, Peggy creates a safe space to elicit complex, insightful, and honest perspectives where all ideas are vital. Her portfolio includes worker-owned and producer-owned enterprises in diverse industries. Her clients of business owners include homecare, taxi, grocery, coffee shops, produce, dairy, eggs, shellfish, small meat processors, food banks, and food manufacturers. Peggy served in various roles at KDC, a Cooperative Development Center in Pennsylvania, stepping down as the Executive Director in December 2021. As a food systems advocate, she was an early organizer of the Community Supported Agriculture movement. Her business evolved into Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, which is now cooperatively owned by 150 small family farms.
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- Devra Gartenstein [EN] she/her. Devra owned and ran small food businesses for 25 years before collaborating with coworkers to convert her most recent business into a worker-owned cooperative. In the process, she fell in love with the cooperative model and began working with the USFWC as a peer advisor. Devra is especially interested in strategic planning and business models, believing that it is especially important for mission-driven businesses to be financially viable so they can have sufficient resources to manifest their dreams. Her most recent venture is New Day Cooperative Distribution, a producer-owned grocery home delivery service.
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McKenzie Jones [EN] she/her/hers
McKenzie is a founding member of the Aurora Pocket Neighborhood Cooperative, a co-owned, urban, intentional community that she still calls home. She has steered radical organizations such as the Center for Sustainability in State College, PA and Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative in Ithaca, NY. McKenzie is a member owner of CoLab Cooperative and runs The Worker Place, a nonprofit incubating worker-owned cooperatives. She believes in worker ownership as a pathway out of oppressive economics toward a just working environment for all!
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- brandon king (all lower-case*) [EN] he/him brandon is a community organizer, dj, visual artist and overall creative originally from Hampton Roads Virginia where he currently resides. brandon moved to Jackson Mississippi in 2014, to actualize the Jackson-Kush Plan, aimed at struggling for Black self-determination and economic democracy where he worked for six years as a cultural organizer, cooperative developer, and program coordinator for Cooperation Jackson, of which he is also a founding member. While there, brandon served on the executive committee and was a farm anchor of Freedom Farms Cooperative. brandon currently serves as the Community Engagement Coordinator for Resonate Co-op, an international music streaming platform cooperative that’s co-owned and democratically managed by the artists, developers and listeners who use the platform. his main role in this position is guiding the design and implementation of community processes and protocols for maximizing participation and democratic inclusion in collective decision-making.
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Daniella Preisler [EN / SP] she/her
Daniella, originally from Chile, brings extensive experience as a cooperative development consultant, certified community coach and trainer and co-founder of her second cooperative business, Colmenar Cooperative Consulting, which services the Latinx community. As a worker-owner of Home Green Home SF, a worker cooperative of Latina women who have provided ecological cleaning services in San Francisco since 2009, she truly understands the cooperative experience. She has served on the USFWC Board, international committee and Movimiento de Inmigrantes en Cooperativas. Now as a consultant and developer, she advises her clients to develop their capabilities within participatory governance, financial literacy and structure, and effective communication in their cooperative businesses.
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- James Razsa [EN] he/his. James hails from Gray, Maine. He is one of the founders and current CEO of Democracy Brewing. His extensive experience in economic justice organizing includes working for workers’ centers, labor unions, and a climate organization. He has coordinated campaigns bringing together labor, community, faith, racial justice, student, climate, and immigrant groups. James’s worker cooperative experience includes interning for the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives as well as working for Equal Exchange, one of the largest worker-coop businesses in the United States. He also has years of experience in the service and brewing industry. He has a bachelor’s degree in Community Studies and Economic Justice from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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Iliana Reinhardt [EN / SP] she/ella
Iliana S-D Reinhardt is an Intuitive Analyst. She is a bilingual (Spanish) professional bookkeeper with a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Development and Mathematics from Columbia University. Most recently, she was a Senior Accounting Specialist at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. She has lived in Mexico, New York City, and Buenos Aires and currently resides in Southern California, where she grew up. Her passion lies in being of service to others and to the Earth. Her hope is to bring linearity, order, and structure to other people’s finances while also weaving kindness, love, and blessings in the work that she does.
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Andrew Stachiw [EN] he/him
Andrew Stachiw, is a co-founder and worker-owner of Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) where he is the Director of Curriculum Development and Cooperative Education. Through his work providing TA through TESA, CDI, and USFWC Andrew provides technical assistance for a wide range of co-ops, and has designed education for cooperative development organizations around the country. Andrew is passionate about cooperative systems that fight for social justice and much of his co-op work has focused on the food system, land access, and the formerly incarcerated. Andrew lives in northern Vermont, where he runs a small farm and is one of the statewide organizers for the USFWC.
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Stephen Switzer [EN] he/him
Stephen is a facilitator, accountant, and emeritus worker-owner of A Bookkeeping Cooperative and Thirdroot Community Health Center. He consults on finance & operations. Stephen received his B.A. in Geography from Middlebury College and is pursuing a M.S. in Accounting at Saint Mary’s College. A native Arizonan, Stephen now resides in Oakland, CA with his husband, daughter, and dog, Chaga.
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Damon Terrell [EN] he/him
Damon grew up in Madison Wisconsin. He is passionate about learning and community building. Damon is primarily interested in cooperativism as an approach to securing freedom and sovereignty for the people. He is happiest with family and friends, playing games, eating too much food, dancing, and telling stories.
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Esther West [EN] she/they
Esther West has five years of first-hand worker ownership experience from Equal Exchange and as a current worker-owner at Ajani Cooperative. In her previous position as Cooperative Development Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, Esther provided technical assistance to cooperatives, conducted market analysis, researched Latinx and national cooperative development and created several databases and analytical cooperative maps. She is currently on the Board of MadWorC and is Vice President of the Board of the USFWC.
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Annie Winkler [EN] they/them
Annie Winkler worked for 12 years at Real Pickles Cooperative where they cut their teeth on bylaw and policy creation during the conversion to worker-coop in 2012. Governance, facilitation, humane resources, and community building are their passions, along with financial literacy and production efficiency. They’re committed to creating processes that work and that are flexible when situations change, while working from lens of justice and equity. They’ve also served on the board of their local food coop.
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Emma Yorra [EN / SP] she/her
Emma Yorra is a Brooklyn-based, Spanish-speaking bookkeeper with 12 years of experience bringing her financial management and facilitation skills to cooperatives, movement nonprofits, and small businesses. She loves to help others develop the skills and confidence they need to effectively run their organizations. Emma worked for three years as a Bookkeeper, Consultant and Financial Educator at A Bookkeeping Cooperative, where she was also a worker owner. She has served as treasurer on boards, developed and financed worker cooperatives, and earned a Masters in Social Economics and Cooperative Business Management from Mondragon University.
Resources for Startups
The Co-op Clinic hosts a free Worker Co-op Startup Webinar on the First Friday of every month to help guide the initial process of launching a new Worker Co-op business. Register for our monthly Startup Webinar and other Co-op Clinic webinars at usworker.coop/calendar
For Startup webinar recordings, mini guides and more information, visit our Startup Resources Page.
Packages & Pricing
Our technical assistance services are fee-for-service at $85/hr for USFWC members and $125/hr for non-members; training fees are $150/hr for members and $200/hr for non-members. Pro-bono services are offered when funds are available, particularly for eligible rural areas. Please contact clinic@usworker.coop for more information.
Partner with Co-op Clinic (for Developers)
If you’re a USFWC Developer Member or Federation Partner, we’re already looking out for clients to refer your way. If you’re not, consider joining USFWC. Either way, we’re happy to discuss how we can collaborate. Some ideas for collaboration:
- Joint application for workforce development or industry focused funds to support affordable / pro-bono TA to low resource communities.
- Cross-promote our educational events (Reach our Comms team direct messaging USWFC on social media or emailing comms@usworker.coop)
- Shared clients bringing in our unique specialties to the project.
- Co-op Developer networking events with new co-op development tool sharing and troubleshooting sessions.
Please reach out here (clinic@usworker.coop) or set up a meeting with staff to discuss potential collaboration.
Here are some specific benefits of working with Co-op Clinic:
- There are many strengths of the peer to peer model, such as finding advisors with the necessary industry experience.
- In larger co-op development efforts such as municipal projects, Peer Advisors could have an early role showing successful co-ops and later role in specialized TA offerings.
- USFWC’s Co-op Clinic has a national reach.
- USFWC staff and Peer Advisors have a high level of cultural competency and experience in anti-oppression work.
Check out the Staff and Peer Advisor bios and the Packages section to see what we offer. We appreciate any referrals you send our way. Please refer people to this page, usworker.coop/clinic or our email clinic@usworker.coop.