At the core of every successful co-operative lies an effective governance structure that ensures democratic member control, equitable participation, representation, and expertise. However, governance is not a “one-size-fits-all” practice. The knowledge, skills, experiences, and composition of the directors, combined with specific governance practices such as succession plans, board evaluation processes, and board recruitment strategies, contribute to the effectiveness of governance in each organization. While there has been an increase in educational training opportunities and resources to support governance among co-operatives, research has shown that co-operatives continue to lack quality data to benchmark their governance practices. 

In 2019, in response to this need, the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives – with generous support from UFA – developed and launched the first wave of the Canadian Co-operative Governance Survey. The goals of this survey were to:

1. Gather data on governance practices among Canadian co-operatives and credit unions in order to develop a tool to benchmark their governance practices as compared to those of their peers.
2. Collect comprehensive, robust, and longitudinal data on governance practices that would allow co-operatives to reflect over time on the governance practices of their organizations and those of their peers.

You can read the full Wave 1 report here. 

After a successful first wave of the survey in its initial pilot phase, the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives launched the second wave of the survey. The second wave of the survey aimed to gather more and more diverse organizations, and to expand the survey and explore additional dimensions of co-operative governance. A total of 114 co-operatives shared information about several aspects of their corporate governance practices. The next wave of the Canadian Co-operative Governance survey is planned for 2025. 

• Click to Read the 2023 Report

Wave 2 Credit Union Findings

The co-operative sector is diverse, consisting of member-owned businesses operating in everything from insurance, to banking, to farming, to retailing and beyond. This diversity is also reflected amongst co-operative governance practices. As part of the Canadian Co-operative Governance Survey, this report focuses on the governance practices of credit unions and it finds that, even within this sector, there is considerable diversity among small, medium, and large credit unions. Specifically, this report finds that boards on large credit unions tend to be younger and more demographically diverse and have proportionally more executive-level experience on the board of directors than medium and small credit unions. Meanwhile, medium and small credit union directors tend to be older, less diverse, and have served longer periods of time. This report further finds that credit unions generally have younger and more diverse boards than their non co-operative peers.

• Read the Credit Union Findings Report

Wave 1 and Wave 2 Comparisons

How are co-operative and credit union governance practices changing over time? Until recently, this question was difficult to answer with any certainty. But thanks to data gathered over two waves of the Canadian Co-operative Governance Survey, we are now in a position to begin answering that question. This report focuses on sixteen Canadian co-operatives and credit unions that participated in both waves of the survey and finds that compensation for board chairs and directors has increased over the three years, especially amongst larger sized co-operatives. Meanwhile, there is some tentative evidence to suggest co-operative boards are becoming more diverse and younger.

• Read the Wave 1 and Wave 2 Comparisons Report

Through the Canadian Co-operative Governance Survey, the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives developed and launched the Canadian Co-operative Governance Dashboard in 2022, where all participating organizations of the survey can access and benchmark their governance practices with their peers at no cost. You can access this benchmarking tool here (please note: only respondents of the survey can access the benchmarking tool for now).

Click below to watch the webinar on how to use the Canadian Co-operative Governance Dashboard.