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The stakeholder-empowering philanthropy of Edward Filene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2019

Keith Taylor  and
Nathan P. Goodman
Keith Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616
Nathan P. Goodman*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Credit unions currently serve over 110 million members in the United States. This is surprising, given the challenges associated with forming cooperatives. This paper explains how grants were used to overcome these challenges and create the modern credit union sector. Edward Filene, a wealthy 20th-century department store owner, provided philanthropic funding and technical expertise to early credit unions, resulting directly in the creation of 26,000 American credit unions over a 45-year period. Filene's leadership helped overcome the various social dilemmas associated with creating cooperatives, reforming institutions, and establishing an institutional framework that enables and supports cooperatives.

Keywords

Cooperativesself-governancecollective action problemsconsumer cooperativesgrants
Type
Symposium on Institutional Analysis and the Gift
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 715 - 729
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2019

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