BRED is a worker-led intervention to catalyze a more cooperative economy in Baltimore and beyond.
We strategically deploy non-extractive capital, popular education, and deep technical assistance to sustain and scale the local ecosystem for worker and community ownership.
Since 2016, BRED has deployed over $20 million in non-extractive investment advancing worker and community ownership in Baltimore and Maryland.
BRED can help you start a cooperative business:
- Learn more about worker cooperatives—how they work and why they matter.
- Learn more about BRED’s unique approach to non-extractive finance, helping co-operatives get the capital they need to grow and thrive.
- Attend BRED’s annual Worker Cooperative Jumpstart and consult our online resource library.
- Ready to get started? Fill out our intake form and let us know how BRED can help.
Discover how BRED is helping Waterbottle Cooperative tackle the vacant housing crisis in West Baltimore, creating jobs with dignity for people in need of a second chance.
Discover how BRED helped David Wells, the founder of The Wine Source, retire after 34 years by selling his business to its workers.
BRED can help you sell your business to your employees:
- Learn more about how we help local business owners preserve their legacy through worker-ownership conversions
- Connect with our business legacy team at conversions@baltimoreroundtable.org to schedule an initial consultation on how a transition to worker-ownership for your business can be structured and financed.
BRED can help you and your co-workers buy your workplace:
- Learn more about BRED’s support for worker-led conversions to cooperative ownership.
- Fill out our intake form to learn more, or, if the situation is extremely urgent, get in touch ASAP at info@baltimoreroundtable.org.
Discover how BRED helped the workers at Common Ground reopen their cafe as a democratic workplace.
Discover how BRED helped Taharka Brothers scale operations and build democratic culture as a worker-owned, youth-led ice cream manufacturer.
BRED can help your cooperative business grow and thrive:
- Attend an upcoming BRED training, apply to our Advanced Cooperator Apprenticeship Training, or learn more about our consulting services
- Connect through BRED with Baltimore’s wider co-op community
- Learn more about our lending programs to help cooperatives access non-extractive funding for business expansion, property acquisition, and working capital.
BRED makes it easy to support the cooperative ecosystem in Baltimore and Maryland:
- Make a tax-deductible donation to support our cooperative education, outreach, and training programs.
- Learn more about investing in worker and community ownership through BRED and our national cooperative, Seed Commons.
- Request a speaker from BRED to talk to your class, neighborhood association, or organization.
- Shop co-op with all the cooperatives we have supported in Baltimore and beyond.
Discover how BRED is building one of the fastest-growing worker cooperative ecosystems in the country, as a member of the national Seed Commons financial cooperative.
Latest news and updates:
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Red Emma’s In The USA Today Top 10!
USA TODAY recently published the results of their Reader’s Choice Awards for top 10 independent bookstores. Out of all the independent bookstores in the nation, Red Emma’s came in 9th! Make sure when you stop by, you tell them congratulations! Read more here! Red Emma’s ranked #No. 9: for Best Independent Bookstore in the 2025…
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BRED Leads Cooperative Statute All The Way
We did it! The Maryland Cooperative Statute has passed!!! It has been signed by the Governor and will go into effect on October 1, 2026! Our project steward, Anna Evans-Goldstein, took initiative and cultivated the Maryland Limited Worker Cooperative Association Act. This meant a lot of drafts, meetings, conversations, connections, trips to Annapolis, and time.…
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The Real News Podcast Talks Baltimore Co-ops
Maximillian Alvarez moderated a panel talking to some Baltimore City folks who are part of the worker-owned cooperative ecosystem. Listen to what it’s like to operate a co-op, the history of how these worker-owners came to their cooperative, and how BRED is part of that process. The Real News Podcast