Twin Pines History
Twin Pines History
1964:
The TWIN PINES COOPERATIVE FOUNDATION began as the Bay Area Neighborhood Development Foundation (BAND), a non profit tax exempt organization under the sponsorship of Associated Cooperatives, Inc. (AC). At the time, AC was the national member of Universal Cooperatives on behalf of consumer cooperatives in the USA. AC, founded in 1935 now over 70 years old is one of the oldest continuing consumer cooperative organizations in the USA. Last year, TPCF celebrated its 41st anniversary of service to the cooperative community. TPCF is the longest serving foundation in the USA serving the needs of consumer cooperatives.
1964-68:
With an $843,000 grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity, TPCF supplied bilingual consumer information to low-income areas in San Francisco Bay Area. The project created four credit unions for community residents.
1974-75:
Administered a $50,000 grant from the Department of Health Education and Welfare to study a cooperative health maintenance organization in the Bay Area. The Rockridge Health Plan was the result of the study.
1980-83:
Under a $250,000 contract from the National Cooperative Bank Development Corporation (NCBDC), created a computer-assisted pre-order system. For about a decade, cooperatives following the model processed millions of dollars in orders throughout the USA. 1980 - Present: With close to $50,000 of support over a number of years from the Mutual Service Fund, TPCF has conducted education and development projects mainly focusing on food cooperatives. 1982-85: Provided development support to newly emerging cooperatives under a $100,000 contract from NCBDC. These co-ops now have combined gross sales of over $50 million.
1982-84:
Raised $60,000 in seed money to create the 30,000 member Cable Co-op, serving the Palo Alto area, the only urban cable cooperative in the USA. Due to the dominance of a few companies in cable the Cable Co-op was forced to merge into one of the national cable giants in the late 1990’s.
1986- 2000:
Brought Co-op Camp Sierra into the Foundation. Since 1939, Co-op Camp Sierra has been the heart and soul of the California cooperative movement. 25,000 campers later, Co-op Camp Sierra remains "A Rainbow on the Mountain." The Co-op Camp now runs as its own entity. TPCF provides annual economic support for the co-op education program at Camp Sierra.
1990-91:
Received funding from the Japanese Consumers’ Cooperative Union to create the book, What Happened to the Berkeley Co-op? The book was published in both Japanese and English.
1991.
The State of California approved us changing our formal name from BAND to the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. This name change reflected our interest in becoming both statewide and national in our work in cooperation and development.
1991:
Under a $10,000 grant from the University of California Center for Cooperatives, studied the impact of education programs in ten West Coast consumer cooperatives.
1993:
The Kobe earthquake destroyed many co-op stores in Japan. TPCF took the lead in raising over $50,000 from US co-ops to help co-ops in the Kobe region. The outcome of the effort was a joint venture between Davis Campus Cooperatives and University Cooperative Association of Kyoto. Pacifico is a ten million dollar student housing co-op housing 110 students. 1994-2005: Initiated and supported the initial efforts to create the Yolo Mutual Housing Association. YMHA has built 176 affordable housing units in Davis valued at $20 million dollars. The four mutual communities are called, Twin Pines, Owendale, Tremont Green and Moore Village.
1997:
As part of the celebration of 100 years of cooperation in Davis, TPCF led the efforts to raise $10,000 for a Cooperative Centenary Clock at the Davis Food Co-op.
1995-98:
Through a grant from the MSI Fund, TPCF initiated a consortium of US and Canadian co-op organizations to create the Cooperative Publishers Roundtable. The result was a more unified approach for publishing and distributing co-op literature in North America. TPCF created the Co-op Catalog and later turned over the literature program to NCBA’s web site. For about 20 years, TPCF was the largest supplier of books and educational materials to cooperatives in the USA.
1995-present:
TPCF provided $5,000 and the Davis Food Co-op $10,000 in matching funds to start the Davis Cooperative Development Fund. The Fund is housed within TPCF and receives annual grant funding from a number of sponsors. The loan fund now stands at over $80,000 and grows by $10,000 per year. The Fund has made loan commitments to various Davis cooperatives of over $55,000.
1997-Present:
Through the leadership of George Yasukochi of the Berkeley Co-op, TPCF was able to have individual Berkeley co-op shareholders donate their funds to create the California Cooperative Pioneers Fund. The endowment fund now stands at $20,000. The interest from the Fund is donated annually to cooperative education.
1999:
TPCF created a program of support for Cooperative Community Funds in California. TPCF provided matching funds of $90,000 from its own funds to match six of the California co-ops who were members of AC to start a CCF.
1999:
TPCF received its first ever grant from the State of California. With a $32,000 grant from the California Energy Commission (matched by other grants for a total of $65,000), TPCF educated co-op members at ten co-ops throughout the state about green energy choices.
2000:
TPCF received its’ second grant of $37,000 from the California Energy Commission to fund a program to put solar panels on the roofs of five food co-ops in California. TPCF worked to place solar panels on the roofs of the Arcata Co-op, Davis Food Co-op, Briarpatch Co-op in Grass Valley and the Isla Vista Co-op in Santa Barbara. 2001. TPCF extended its CCF program to food cooperatives nationally. TPCF committed an additional $20,000 in matching funds to co-ops outside of California. Eleven Food Co-ops now participate in the CCF program. In 2005 TPCF is working to increase that number to 20 sponsor food co-ops. By the end of 2010 the goal is to have 36 co-ops participating. At the end of 2005 we anticipate our combined CCF endowments will stand at over $575,000. 2001. TPCF created the Karl Kruger Scholarship Fund with major donations of close to $10,000 from the Davis Food Co-op and vendors. The interest from the fund is used to send young California co-op leaders to CCMA. 2002. TPCF adopted strong policies that would invest both its own funds and CCF funds in cooperative development funds throughout the country. As invested funds became liquid TPCF would redirect them to developing cooperatives. By the end of 2006 1.5 million dollars of TPCF/CCF funds will be invested in cooperative development.
2002-03:
TPCF received $20,000 in funding from the Center for Cooperatives to conduct two studies of limited equity housing cooperatives.
2003:
TPCF received $20,000 in funding from the California Energy Commission and PG&E to put out a booklet on placing solar on cooperative and non profit housing.
2003:
The National Cooperative Bank and NCBDC donated $10,000 to TPCF towards program development of the CCF program. The funds were used to create the original web site and develop our first set of fundraising materials.
2004-5
TPCF created the Co-op Farmland Trust program. The CFT will be a program that helps to save or create land for organic farming. Our work will be accomplished both through direct loans and fundraising support for these efforts. TPCF made available $100,000 in matching funds to start the program. The Co-op Farmland Trust has received $25,000 in grants for program development.
2005:
TPCF brought six new food co-ops into the CCF program and increased our investment in cooperative development organizations. In 2005 we made an investment of $101,000 in shares of Organic Valley Co-op.
2006:
By the end of 2006 there will likely be 22 food cooperatives participating in the Cooperative Community Fund program. The combined assets of the CCF’s will reach almost $700,000. The largest CCF is now the Hanover Cooperative Community Fund which is over $170,000.