Radical Inclusion Fund (RIF)

Seed Commons supports an alternative to capitalism that shifts control of capital to worker cooperatives and non-extractive finance. The organization was formed in 2015 with The Working World; the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy, a group that sources capital for organizations that make inclusion and equal outcomes a priority; the Southern Reparations Loan Fund, a group that loans to businesses in marginalized communities in the southern United States; and the Los Angeles Co-op Lab. SC is a network of 23 organizations that lend local funds modeled on SC that has made 399 loans since 2011, 90% of those to Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), and a network of 40 member organizations in 30 states. ^{3 4 5 6 7 8}

Principles

Seed Commons’ principles include non-extractive finance, defined as never benefiting more than those to which it makes loans; workplace democracy, in which workers share in ownership; networked power, multiple local offices to provide community input to investments; rethinking risk, using relationships rather than credit scores to evaluate risk; and community capacity, the consideration of commitment to shared success of a democratic workplace. ^{9 10 11 12 13}

Network

Seed Commons claims a national cooperative network of 39 state and community-based organizations including: Climate Justice Alliance-Our Power Loan Fund, a project of the left-wing Movement Strategy Center; the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, which supports cooperative startups; PODER Emma, a defender of mobile home communities;  WEPOWER, a St. Louis investment fund; Repaired Nations, a group that claims to repair the effects of colonization by creating a network of communities; and Siembra NC, a group that opposes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ^{14 15 16 17}

Grantees

Seed Commons reported loan forgiveness grants to five organizations including $2 million to New Era Windows LLC of Chicago Illinois and $250,126 to the Red Emma’s cooperative of Baltimore, Maryland. Other grants include $28,737 to the Organization for Human Rights and Democracy. ¹⁸

Finances

Seed Commons is supported by the Radical Inclusion Fund. ¹⁹

Seed Commons reported contributions and grants of $7,174,471, program service revenue of $1,190,474, and a total revenue of $9,581,365 in 2023. Expenses included grants of $3,867,704 and salaries of $3,324,970 for total expenses of $10,946,830. Net assets at the end of 2023 were $18,430,514. ²⁰

People

Kate Khatib and Brendan Martin are the co-executive directors of Seed Commons. Khatib, the owner of Red Emma’s bookstore and restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, helped found SC as well as the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy. Martin founded The Working World, Inc. in 2004 and is an Ashoka fellow and two-time Ashoka Globalizer. He also serves on the board of the Southern Reparations Loan Fund, the New Economy Project, California Harvesters farmworker cooperative, and Brooklyn Stone and Tile cooperative. ^{21 22}