When you became an owner of Common Ground, you purchased a $60 share of equity in the co-op. What is a share of equity? Why does it matter?
 
Common Ground is a unique business, but like any other business it has to be capitalized. The capital to run a business can come from three places: loans, profit, and owner investment. Without owner investment, it is not possible to take on debt, and without the money from owner investment or loans, the business cannot run, much less make a profit. Owner investment--equity--is the bedrock of any business. You and I are the owners of Common Ground Food Co-op and our equity investment provides the foundation upon which the co-op is built. Pretty powerful stuff, that equity. That share of equity is what makes you an owner of Common Ground. 

In the first months of 2008, six months before Common Ground opened in its new Lincoln Square location, your board of directors voted to increase the owner equity investment. The increase from $30 to $60 was the first in over a decade, and raised almost $30,000 to fund the new store. It was a powerful statement to potential lenders that Common Ground's owners were fully invested in making their co-op a successful business.  The new $60 equity investment level has made it possible for a business that is now physically and fiscally double the size it was in early 2008 to stay fully capitalized.

When you first decide to become an owner or when there is an equity increase, you have six months to pay your full equity investment.  During this period, you're entitled to all the benefits of ownership. And for those who are facing economic hardship, Common Ground offers equity scholarships for up to 100% of your equity investment. (If you bought plants at our May sale, you helped fund these!) These grace periods and scholarships bring ownership within everyone's reach.

Equal economic participation is one of the seven international cooperative business principles all co-ops follow. All owners of Common Ground contribute equally to the capital of the Co-op. In return, we get to be owners of Common Ground and have a democratic say in how it is run, AND we get economic benefits like owner sales, bulk buying discounts, owner appreciation days, and half-price classes. To have access to all the terrific owner benefits, and to participate in Co-op voting, each of us has the responsibility to make our full investment in Common Ground.

Until now, if you had an owner number, you received all the benefits of ownership whether or not you'd finished paying your equity. But for a co-op to function, all of its members must invest equally to have access to the benefits of ownership. There is nothing equitable about giving the same benefits to two people who have invested unequally in Common Ground, and equitable is what the Co-op is all about! So...

To align Common Ground's practices with its principles, as of February 1st of this year we will extend owner benefits (discounts, voting, etc.) only to owners who have paid their equity in full.  If you haven't had a chance to pay your full equity yet, don't worry! If you signed up for ownership less than six months ago, you're still within your grace period. (If you don't know how much time you have left, just ask at the register.) If not, you have the entire month of January to get caught up and fully invest. If making that investment is economically beyond your reach, just ask for an equity scholarship application at the register.

Our equity is the powerful foundation Common Ground is built on, the foundation from which we can build a co-op, a food system, and a community we can believe in.