Inland Cooperative Services

05/27/2026

🚨Join us and Washington Center for Employee Ownership (WACEO) next week in Colville, WA at Fired Up Brewing for an Employee Ownership Community Spaces!

These spaces are a casual, friendly meetup for communities to gather, learn about employee ownership, meet people who are passionate about worker ownership, and ask questions about the growing movement.🌲

If you have been curious about employee ownership, have heard about WACEO, or simply enjoy meeting folks in your community, this is a great chance to stop by, settle in, and learn something new. ✨

Register via the link: https://luma.com/8tqyzdhe

Hope to see you there!

05/27/2026

05/22/2026

✨ We were invited by to share our experience at the Spring Member Meeting about Spokane’s declaration recognizing 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives.�
We’re incredibly appreciative of the Federation for being such a strong support and resource for cooperators across the country.�
Our Project Steward, Emily, shared her experience navigating what was a major first — both personally and for ICS’s civic engagement efforts. The process was made accessible through USFWC’s advocacy infrastructure, support from local ecosystem partners, and collaboration with our city council members.�
Reflecting on the experience and expressing gratitude to the network was almost more rewarding than the declaration itself. 💗�
As Mo Manklang, Senior Director of Government Relations for USFWC, reminded us: advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint.�
Consider donating to USFWC to help sustain the work of the Federation and strengthen the worker cooperative movement! 🌲

05/20/2026

Such an insightful conference last week in Spokane — thank you !

Not only was this a wonderful opportunity to learn about so many nonprofits across the state doing incredible work, but there were also so many valuable learning opportunities in the breakout sessions.

The invaluable knowledge we gained from industry experts will help us better collaborate with and guide our nonprofit clients.

ICS worker-owners Emily Himmelright and Emily Daley attended sessions including:

- Getting it Done with Transparency: Why your Audit and Form 990 Matter to Funders
- The Grounded Leader: Building Just and Inclusive Teams When it Matters Most
- From Side Hustle to Spinoff: Earned Revenue Without Jeopardizing Your Status
- From Connections to Capacity: Networking as a Nonprofit Leadership Skill

We continue to absorb and apply these learning opportunities to the work we’re doing at Inland Cooperative Services.

From the financial services we provide to businesses, to the cooperative and employee ownership ecosystems we’re helping develop, we’re in an exciting phase of growth — one where we continue determining not only how we get the work done, but who we do it for and why.

05/19/2026

📖 Join us for an Employee Ownership Story Hour featuring Heartsong Homecare Cooperative!

Come hear the story of how Heartsong became a worker-owned cooperative and what employee ownership has meant for their workers, clients, and community. This is a chance to connect with local business leaders, community members, and others interested in building stronger, community-rooted businesses through employee ownership.

We’ll share food, conversation, and real-world lessons from a business putting ownership into the hands of the people who make it thrive every day.

Whether you’re curious about employee ownership, exploring succession options for your business, or simply want to meet others passionate about local economic resilience, we’d love to see you there.

May 29th 2026
5:30 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.
390 NE Midway Blvd, Oak Harbor, WA 98277

Register here: https://luma.com/y8ihdyw8

05/18/2026

Let's get back to the fundamentals!
Join us for Civics 101: How to Engage with Council, a community workshop to help residents better understand local government, upcoming changes to Council, and how to use your voice as a constituent in some of the City's most pressing items.

Wednesday, June 3, 2026, at 6:00 pm in Council Chambers

You'll learn:
✅ The Role of Council
✅How to give effective public testimony
✅Tools, tips, and resources to stay engaged

Bring a friend, bring your community, bring your organization, bring your questions and of course, bring your feedback.

05/13/2026

The nonprofit slated to take ownership of The Spokesman-Review announced Wednesday it met its initial fundraising goal, triggering a monthslong transition period that will move the paper’s nearly 140-year ownership by the Cowles family to a community-operated news organization.

05/11/2026

In April, our project steward Emily had the chance to volunteer at Spokane’s very first Black Earth Day! 🌎 🌳�
The event was warm, welcoming, and a powerful reflection of what community-led, inclusive spaces can look like. Spokane showed up: with 300+ attendees and 50+ vendors and organizations coming together in celebration, collective care, and connection across our region. �
We first learned about Black Earth Day at the PJAL’s *From Survival to Vision* conference from organizer Duaa-Rahema, Director of Seed to Soul. Since then, it’s been meaningful to see this same ecosystem of environmental, land, and climate advocates showing up across spaces, from that conference, to Gonzaga’s Resilience Academy, and beyond.

For Emily, it brought a lot of these threads together. It’s also a reflection of how we hold the 7th cooperative principle, Concern for Community.

We’re always exploring where cooperative models might support this work, but first and foremost, we show up as community members—ready to listen, learn, and be in relationship. ✨🌱

05/08/2026

That’s a wrap on the 11-week Resilience Academy hosted by Gonzaga University Office of Sustainability 🌱

Our project steward, Emily, had the opportunity to connect with incredible organizations across our region leading work in environmental, climate, food, and land justice and advocacy.

Building relationships within this ecosystem of changemakers — and exploring the many ways co-ops can help amplify shared missions and community impact — was truly invaluable.

Building relationships within this ecosystem of support organizations and change makers — and all throughout listening for the many ways co-ops could help share capacity and amplify impact in the sector — was truly inspiring to bring back to help guide our work at ICS.

We’re deeply grateful to Sylvia Blodorn the organizer for this academy, and the entire cohort for creating such a thoughtful space for learning, practice, and collaboration. 💚

05/06/2026

We had to share this beautiful day and the amazing haul from local businesses during our visit to Chewelah ✨

We joined the Chewelah Chamber of Commerce for their Friday morning meeting and got a closer look at the great work they’re doing in the community.

While we were there, we stopped Columbia Community Creamery and met Virginia, who generously shared the story behind the creamery and how their nonprofit supports local dairy farmers 🐄

From the scenic drive to the warm, welcoming connections, we’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from those helping shape and strengthen small-town communities.

Our worker-owner Emily shared that the snickerdoodle cookies from The Bread Box flooded her with forgotten memories of her grandmothers recipe.