OEOC's Annual Giving Campaign

2009-2010

November 2009

Dear Friend of the OEOC,

I wish you could have been with us October 21 when we held the ribbon cutting for Evergreen Cooperative Laundry and Ohio Cooperative Solar.  There were two hundred community leaders under a tent at the Shorebank facility on East 105th Street in Cleveland to celebrate the start up of these first two co-ops.  There were ringing endorsements of employee ownership from, among others, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Ronn Richard, the president of the Cleveland Foundation; and John Ryan, Senator Sherrod Brown’s state director. Check out the Evergreen Cooperatives video online at our website at www.oeockent.org. You’ll enjoy it!

This exciting initiative from the Cleveland Foundation seeks to replicate the Mondragon cooperative model in Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods, creating jobs with good wages and benefits for community residents and building assets for families which have none. These new co-ops will provide goods and services to the large non-profit institutions in the area. And as the name suggests, all the Evergreen co-ops will be “green” as well as worker owned.

Moreover, central to the Evergreen initiative is the Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund, which is currently capitalized at $4.7 million and to which the Evergreen cooperatives will contribute 10% of pre-tax earnings after they have repaid their initial loans.

This is a model which can be replicated in other hard-hit industrial cities.

When I wrote you last year, the Evergreen Co-ops were only under development, and the Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund was in the future.  Now they are both a reality.

A couple of other high points of the OEOC year:

A second major initiative that the OEOC is taking is a major push to get the Common Wealth Revolving Loan Fund to sustainability as a niche employee-ownership lender. In its 22 year existence, CWRLF has never made a bad loan. Of course we didn’t invest in Lehman Brothers or securitized subprime loans.  Employee-owned companies are a better bet.

The bank crisis dried up lending, creating a real need for a dedicated employee ownership lender: the Common Wealth Revolving Loan Fund which the OEOC manages.  I’m pleased to report that CWRLF has tripled its assets (to $1.5 million) and done an additional $660,000 in lending since my last annual letter.

If you are interested possibly in investing in CWRLF, check that box on the return envelope and we’ll send you more information.

Finally, we have had the pleasure of working with colleagues elsewhere to set up new employee ownership programs.

We are working with the New York Department of Labor to reestablish the NY employee ownership program including program design and training for staff.  That program will be up and running in January.

And we are delighted to report that an Australian group supported by the unions has founded the Australian Employee Buyout Centre (AEBC).  We’ve been working with them over the last year and a half.  They just received funding from the Australian government to enable them to start operations.

As you can read in the attached annual report, we have continued our core activities supporting employee ownership and employee-owned companies throughout Ohio.  That program continues to be an outstanding success – and worthy of replication.  We have also devoted a lot of energy to expanding our business owner succession planning program as part of our core program.  If you are interested in learning more, check the box for a copy of the new edition of our Owner’s Guide including the DVD on the enclosed envelope.

As a supporter of the OEOC, you can be proud of helping make these accomplishments possible.

But there’s more to do in Ohio and – with the change in administration – in Washington to spread the model of state employee ownership programs like Ohio’s throughout the country. Be a part of it: Continue to contribute generously as a Friend of the OEOC.  Or, if you haven’t contributed in the past, as you think about year-end charitable donations, consider aiding the work of the OEOC. Your contribution is tax exempt to the extent allowed by law.  Make checks payable to: OEOC/KSU Foundation.

As another year draws to a close, all of us here at the OEOC wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and all the best in 2010.

Best regards,

John Logue

Director

Click here for our 2009 Annual Report

If you would like to make a contribution and pay online via credit card, click here. In the box labeled "event" type in "Friend of the Center Contribution."

You can also mail in a check to the OEOC, payable to the OEOC/KSU Foundation. If you would like to mark your contribution in remembrance of John Logue, please specify in your check's memo field.