The story
Legislation was signed into law in 1990 authorizing grants to establish a network of rural cooperative development centers throughout the United States. The development centers worked together on an informal basis for nine years. The Madison Principles, a set of standards for cooperative development, were developed in 1995 in Madison, Wisconsin. In February 1999, representatives from nine cooperative development centers on the U.S. met in Denver to found CooperationWorks!
In September 2009, the USDA awarded $2.9 million in grants to 15 members of CooperationWorks! to create jobs and foster economic development in rural communities.
From Wikipedia’s article on CooperationWorks!, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4