Investor Testimonies

CFNE has always had strong support from the faith-based community and socially responsible investment sector. Individuals account for nearly one-fourth of the investor mix. Increasingly, cooperatives themselves are becoming CFNE investors as well as borrowers. Read below to hear, in the words of our supporters, why individuals and institutions invest in CFNE.

Co-op investors in CFNE include Hunger Mountain Food Coop, Community Builders, and City Market/Onion River Coop.

“Our End is to strengthen and support the cooperative movement by working together. When we relocated seven years ago, we desperately needed support and our co-op neighbors generously provided it. We’re grateful to now be in a position to help other co-ops.”

—Clem Nilan, General Manager. City Market/Onion River Coop

“CFNE took on the hard part of the market…and succeeded in meeting the needs of borrowers while also providing investors with a reasonable rate of interest and a leveraged social impact. That’s pretty exciting!”

—Amy Domini, Domini Social Investments, LLC

One thing bothered Marian Coulter when the Boston-area resident inherited a large sum of money from her grandmother in the early 1996. Her inheritance… was invested in energy conglomerates and companies that she “strongly disapproved of”. Click here to learn how she solved the problem.

“As one of the older worker cooperatives in New England, we are delighted to be able to invest in the future of the movement by supporting the great work of the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast.”

—The worker/owners at Community Builders Cooperative 

“Cooperatives [are] an economic model that promotes value not just externally but internally… So we fund CFNE and they fund the Coop.”

—Corinne Florek, Mercy Partnership Fund