On Wednesday, April 20, we held, entirely electronically, an Extraordinary General Assembly (AGE) with nearly 100 members of our social base. With only two items on the agenda, the objective of the call was to approve the creation of two new mechanisms for financial strengthening of the cooperative: the admission of voluntary contributions to the entity's social capital and the creation of a common economic fund that would be provided from the establishment of a new income quota.

With 18 years of experience, more than 1000 partners, 17 projects (6 already in coexistence) and 86 homes in use, Sostre Cívic it already has a considerable dimension that needs to strengthen its financial economic level. This means that, keeping the condition of non-profit cooperative, we need the endowment of a "drawer" of contingencies that ensures the sustainability of the project, to avoid future risks to partners and, at the same time, build a new instrument to help new projects and their financing. 

Both points, which we summarize below, were passed by a large majority with more than 90 and 80% support, respectively.

Voluntary contributions to the social capital

In order to continue growing and facilitate the replicability of new cooperative housing projects in right of use, we have detected the need to be able to have mechanisms that allow us to obtain monetary resources at specific times: a new tool that reinforces the entity's own funds. With this motivation comes the proposal for the first item on the agenda of the Assembly, which consists of opening up the possibility of receiving contributions of social capital, voluntary and remunerated, from partners.

The forecast is to open soon, before the summer, the capital contribution campaign for anyone interested, and keep the campaign active during the coming year and add this new fixed funding mechanism to our website as a new way to be able to collaborate with Sostre Cívic and our projects.

Common economic fund

The proposal, worked on in a participative way at the cooperative's Economics table and with the Governing Board, consists of a new financial instrument that is built from the establishment of a entry fee for all new partners who join a new project in the development phase (that is to say, he already has a patrimonial opportunity to take it forward). 

The amount will be 1,25% in the case of homes in collaboration with public administrations and 0,5% in all other cases, with a minimum of €300 and a maximum of €1.500 the initial contributions. This contribution will be divided into a first payment of €300 at the time of entering the driving group and, the rest, at the time of entry to live there. In any case, some exceptions are contemplated, such as all the people who are already incorporated up to the date of the celebration of the AGE, of homes of special vulnerability, among others.

With this new mechanism, and with the forecast of incorporating around 200 new homes over the next 5 years and counting on the capital contributions of €100 returnable from each partner, Sostre Cívic will endow the Common Fund with €300.000 until 2027. This will make it possible to replicate the cooperative housing model in right of use by promoting new projects, continue to bet on social inclusion in the projects and, at the same time, strengthen the solidity of the cooperative with mechanisms of solidarity and mutual support.