Free Resource
Five courses. Everything your cooperative board needs to lead with financial confidence. Free to access.
When a board member joins a cooperative's board of directors, they take on real fiduciary obligations — to the membership, to the organization's financial sustainability, and to the democratic governance principles the cooperative was founded on.
Most boards receive no systematic financial education. They rely on their CFO or bookkeeper to explain what the numbers mean, and hope the explanations are accurate and complete. This is not good enough — for the board members, who deserve to govern with genuine understanding, or for the membership, who deserve genuinely informed oversight.
The Coop Education Series was built to change that. Five courses, built specifically for cooperative boards and leadership, free to access — because a financially literate cooperative movement is better for everyone.
The learning path
The five courses are designed to be taken in sequence — each builds on the concepts introduced in the one before it. A board that completes all five will have a comprehensive financial education specifically calibrated to the cooperative model.
The foundation every cooperative board member needs. This course introduces cooperative accounting mechanics — how cooperative financial statements differ from corporate ones, the specific accounts that matter for cooperative governance, and how to read a balance sheet and income statement as a cooperative board member.
Topics covered: cooperative financial statement structure, chart of accounts for cooperatives, FASB ASC requirements, member equity section of the balance sheet, the difference between member and non-member income.
How to use financial information to govern your cooperative. This course builds on accounting fundamentals to develop the financial judgment boards need — how to interpret variance reports, evaluate major financial decisions, assess financial ratios, and use industry comparisons to benchmark cooperative performance.
Topics covered: financial ratios for cooperatives, horizontal and vertical analysis, cash flow analysis, patronage dividend decisions, capital investment analysis, industry composite benchmarking.
The course that changes how cooperative boards think about their most important obligation. Covers the full equity management lifecycle — from initial capitalization through patronage allocation, revolving fund management, dilution analysis, and long-term equity planning. If your board takes one course, make it this one.
Topics covered: cooperative equity structure design, patronage allocation mechanics, revolving equity funds, dilution risk, member equity accounts, bylaw equity provisions, equity redemption scheduling.
The governance course. Covers the specific fiduciary obligations of cooperative board members, the relationship between board and management, financial oversight responsibilities, and the democratic governance principles that distinguish cooperative boards from corporate ones.
Topics covered: board fiduciary duties, duty of care and loyalty in cooperatives, financial oversight role, reading and challenging management financial reports, governance documents and their financial implications.
The capstone course. Covers how members exercise ownership rights, participate meaningfully in cooperative governance, hold boards accountable, and engage with the cooperative's financial reality as owners — not just customers or employees. The bridge between financial literacy and democratic ownership.
Topics covered: member rights and responsibilities, reading your annual report, participating in elections and votes, raising concerns through governance channels, understanding your equity position, cooperative investment through RBIFunder.
The Coop Education Series was designed to build exactly the financial literacy needed to recognize what good cooperative financial management looks like — and to identify where your organization's current financial function falls short.
If completing these courses surfaced questions your current team can't answer, or revealed gaps in your equity management, bookkeeping, or CFO function, that's exactly what RBI's professional services are built to address.
Talk to a Cooperative Finance Specialist →"Our patronage calculations have been wrong for years"
"Our board can't read the financials our bookkeeper produces"
"Our books don't track member equity at all"
"We want to raise capital for a cooperative project"