Applications Are Open for The Pinecone Practice

Build the skills and organizational capacity to guide successful worker cooperative conversions

Applications are now open for The Pinecone Practice: Training for Worker Cooperative Conversion Practitioners.

The Pinecone Practice equips cooperative developers and employee-ownership practitioners with the knowledge, tools, and applied skills needed to guide businesses through a transition to worker ownership.

Worker cooperative conversions can preserve businesses, protect jobs, expand ownership, and keep wealth rooted in communities. But these transitions are technically demanding. Practitioners must be able to navigate business succession, financial analysis, valuation, financing, governance, management transitions, taxation, and the relationships that shape every transaction.

Good intentions alone are not enough. Practitioners need a rigorous process, reliable tools, informed judgment, and a community they can turn to when the work becomes complicated.

That is what The Pinecone Practice is designed to provide.

[Apply to The Pinecone Practice]

A practice-oriented approach

The Pinecone Practice offers a comprehensive curriculum covering the full lifecycle of a worker cooperative conversion—from the first conversations about an owner’s exit through financial feasibility, governance design, financing, and finalizing the transaction.

Over ten interactive sessions, participants will engage in:

• Case-based learning grounded in realistic conversion scenarios
• Hands-on exercises that translate concepts into practice
• Peer exchange with cooperative developers from other organizations
• Two office-hour sessions offering individual coaching from an experienced trainer
• Practical assignments that reinforce the tools and methods introduced during sessions

The goal is not simply to help participants understand conversions. It is to help their organizations build or strengthen an effective worker ownership conversion practice.

Continued support beyond the curriculum

Conversion work rarely follows a simple or predictable path. Questions often emerge when practitioners begin applying what they have learned to an actual business.

For that reason, support continues after the ten-session curriculum concludes.

Participants will be invited to join six monthly cohort check-ins where practitioners can talk shop, troubleshoot challenges, ask technical questions, and continue learning from trainers and peers. Participating organizations will also receive up to four hours of individual coaching on a conversion project.

This combination of structured instruction, applied learning, and continued support helps participants carry the work from the classroom into their organizations and communities.

What participants will learn

The curriculum follows the major stages of a worker cooperative conversion.

1. Kickoff and practice building

Develop a foundational understanding of the conversion process, establish cohort goals, and explore the fundamentals of building a conversion practice—including pipeline development, scoping, and client management.

2. Exit planning

Explore succession options including worker cooperatives, employee stock ownership plans, employee ownership trusts, management buyouts, and third-party sales. Learn to assess whether a business and its stakeholders are ready for a conversion.

3–4. Financial analysis

Build confidence organizing and interpreting business financial statements. Calculate key financial ratios, identify patterns and potential concerns, and incorporate appropriate addbacks and adjustments into an analysis.

5. Management succession and operational assessment

Explore leadership transitions in worker-owned businesses and develop management succession plans that support sustainable operations. Understand how anticipated management changes affect financial feasibility.

6. Financial projections

Create informed, data-driven projections that assess business stability and prepare a company for the feasibility process.

7. Business valuation

Learn the fundamentals of income, asset, and market-based valuation approaches. Build the skills to interpret valuation reports, communicate their implications, and identify qualified valuation professionals.

8. Financial feasibility

Translate a valuation into a feasibility model. Identify the financial levers that can make a transaction work and learn to develop and present a feasibility report.

9. Governance structure and design

Compare governance models used by worker cooperatives and learn to guide employees through governance design and collaborative decision-making. Participants will receive practical tools, including governance charts, development checklists, and significance and extensiveness tests.

10. Finalizing a transaction

Review entity structures, tax considerations, lender expectations, and financing mechanisms. Understand the roles played by legal, accounting, and financing professionals—and the documentation needed to complete a transaction.

Who should apply?

The Pinecone Practice is intended for cooperative developers and employee-ownership practitioners whose organizations want to implement or strengthen a conversion or worker-buyout practice.

Strong applicants will:

• Currently work for an organization positioned to support worker cooperative development
• Have at least one year of experience working with worker cooperatives
• Possess a basic understanding of cooperative governance
• Be able to read and understand profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash-flow statements
• Be willing and able to attend the sessions and complete approximately two to three hours of assignments and readings each week
• Have organizational support for implementing a conversion or worker-buyout practice

Preference may be given to organizations sending two participants and to organizations that have previously had a staff member complete the training.

Program schedule and time commitment

The program runs from October 2 through December 18, 2026.

Sessions will be held on Fridays at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time via Zoom. Each session will run approximately two to two and a half hours. Participants should plan for an additional two to three hours of assignments and readings each week.

All sessions will be recorded and shared with participants. An optional in-person gathering may also be offered in connection with the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives Conference.

Program fees

The Pinecone Practice uses a sliding-scale fee structure. Organizations select the tier that best reflects their budget and capacity; no documentation is required.

Solidarity Rate: $2,500

For small or under-resourced organizations, typically with annual operating budgets below $500,000.

Sustaining Rate: $4,000

For organizations with moderate capacity, typically with annual operating budgets between $500,000 and $2 million.

Full Cost Rate: $7,000

For well-resourced organizations able to cover the full cost of the training, typically with annual operating budgets above $2 million.

Higher-capacity organizations help sustain access for organizations with fewer resources. If cost would prevent your organization from participating, please contact us. A limited number of subsidized spaces may be available.

Tools and resources

Participants will receive resources they can adapt and use in their own conversion practices, including:

• Exit-planning and feasibility-study report templates
• Model bylaws and operating agreements
• A financial-analysis spreadsheet template
• Governance-development materials
• A client-readiness assessment
• Tax-analysis and management-succession tools
• Continued peer and coaching support after the curriculum concludes

Build the practice. Carry it forward.

Every practitioner who develops these capabilities can help another business explore worker ownership. Every organization that establishes a strong conversion practice can reach more workers, business owners, and communities. Every well-supported transition can preserve jobs, expand ownership, and demonstrate what cooperation makes possible.

The Pinecone Practice is an investment in the people and organizations carrying this work forward.

[Apply to The Pinecone Practice]