The Cooperative Community Fund (CCF) also known as “Give Where You Live” is an endowment fund, established by a group of cooperatives to enable community giving.
Co-opportunity’s CCF, in conjunction with the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation, serves as a means for Co-op owners and shoppers to make meaningful donations to organizations within our community. Each October at our Owner Annual Meeting, the Co-op awards a grant from the interest earned on the fund to a Los Angeles-area organization working on issues relating to sustainable agriculture, organic food, hunger/ social issues, environmental protection, and other cooperatives.
You can take part in this community giving opportunity by:
- Donating online here
After submitting your payment, please enter “Co-opportunity Market” in the notes section so that the donation will be properly allocated to our fund. - Making a monetary donation at any register at Co-opportunity Market
- Mailing a check to:
Co-opportunity Santa Monica
Attn: CCF Donation
1525 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Application & Eligibility Requirements
The application is available online here.
- Organizations must have non-profit exempt status or tax-exempt documentation with this application.
- Organization cannot advocate, support, or practice unlawful discrimination based on religion, national origin, sex, disability, or sexual orientation.
- Organization cannot be political or religious.
- Organization’s mission should align with Co-opportunity’s Ends helping to make our community better and healthier, and can be described by one of the following categories:
- Environmental/ sustainability
- Education/ the arts
- Peace and freedom of expression
- Economic and social justice
- Civil rights
- Organization is located near Co-opportunity and/or in the Los Angeles-area.
- Organization’s representative must attend Co-opportunity’s Owner Annual Meeting in October to accept the grant.
- Organizations who have previously received the CCF grant are not eligible.
Past Recipients of the CCF Grant
The Meal Project (2020)
SMC Foundation’s MEAL PROJECT provides currently enrolled Santa Monica College students who are experiencing food insecurity with free meal support. The goal is to help students stay in school so that they can accomplish their educational aspirations without experiencing severe hunger.
Seeds to Plate (2019)
An academically integrated, standards-based middle school garden program. It promotes a healthy lifestyle while providing hands-on garden experiences for students, families, and staff at Mark Twain Middle School, LAUSD.
SoLA Food Co-op (2018)
Aiming to empower the community through shared ownership, educational opportunities, and social engagement, SoLA Food Co-op is in the beginning phases of forming itself into a viable cooperatively organized organic and natural grocer in South Los Angeles.
GrowGood (2018) – In partnership with the Salvation Army, GrowGood’s 1.5 acre no-till, regenerative urban farm provides thousands of pounds of fresh, organic produce to the Bell Homeless Shelter. The farm also provides employment and therapeutic opportunities to those transitioning from homelessness at the shelter through culinary training and life skills classes.
UCLA’s Student Food Co-op (2017)
A student-owned, cooperatively-run market & café that educates students about food systems, trains students to manage a sustainable business, and provides a warm, welcoming space where people can come to learn and be part of a community. Its mission: provide fresh, delicious, sustainable food for the UCLA community, celebrate the artistic and cultural vibrancy of our campus, and bring people together.” Read more here!
SÜPRMARKT
A low-cost organic grocery servicing low-income communities in LA. It operates weekly, providing 100% organic produce to make great health and healing available to the communities which need it most.
Ocean Park Community Center – an independent, community-supported organization in which staff, volunteers, and clients work with mutual respect to address the effects of poverty, abuse, neglect, and discrimination. The agency’s programs are designed to remove barriers to access the resources individuals need to ensure their survival, end their victimization, and improve their quality of life.
School on Wheels, Inc.
Provides academic tutoring to children living in shelters, motels, cars, group foster homes and on the streets in Southern California. They provide homeless students stability in a time of stress and transition, and help them achieve educational success so that they may break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.