Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Brooklyn Coop’s last Strategic Plan covered 2014-2017. Still looming in our minds back then was the financial upheaval of 2008-2010 that showed us just how vulnerable BCoop was. For that reason, the Strategic Plan focused on achieving financial sustainability. By the end of 2018 we had mostly accomplished that goal. The question was, what next?
Our answer is building capacity. If we are to keep the gains we have made, both Brooklyn Coop and Grow Brooklyn need to invest resources into their staff people, into their Boards of Directors, into partnering with other non-profit organizations, into advocating for a wider coop movement, and into raising awareness of our work with local elected officials. Our work must go beyond satisfying annual or quarterly metrics. To ensure we are here for the long term, we have to create strength and resiliency in all quarters.
It is worth noting that this Plan talks about Brooklyn Coop and Grow Brooklyn together. Most BCoop members and GB clients see just the service they have come for (a loan, homebuyer workshops, tax prep). Yet our Boards and senior management usually see them as two parts of one whole. With a common mission is to build and preserve economic assets in our local communities, it makes sense to describe the programs of the two organizations along the same continuum. After reading the Plan, I hope you’ll agree.
Samira Rajan is the longest-serving employee of Brooklyn Coop and currently the Director of both the credit union and Grow Brooklyn. She started here as an Americorp*VISTA for a single year of service back when we were Bushwick Coop in 2001, got hooked by the challenge of building a community financial institution, and hasn’t left.