As 2024 comes to a close, our team has been reflecting on all that we’ve accomplished collectively this past year. Together, we have saved mission-driven institutions time and money, shifted contract spend to local, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses, and developed a network of peers that can learn from each other and join hands to create meaningful change. We’re grateful for the role that you’ve played in strengthening the co-op and are excited to share a bit about all that we did together this past year!

Last month, 120 people gathered at our annual meeting to celebrate, network, and plan for what’s next. Our annual meeting is always a joyful event but this year was special as we celebrated 10 years of our incorporation as a purchasing cooperative. Over the past 10 years, CPA has grown to include 90 member-owners and 150+ participants in the DMV doing over $123+ million in business. $48+ million of that spend has gone directly to minority-owned businesses.

2024 in particular has been an immense year of growth for CPA. This October, 3 local co-ops (Ohio, Massachusetts, and Washington DC Metro, pictured below) signed agreements to develop the CPA Network. The CPA Network will provide support and technical assistance to local co-ops as CPA develops purchasing programs in new regions. You can now see all of the places where CPA does group purchasing here.

At CPA, we work to save you time and money on your building so that you can spend more on your mission. But we also help institutions solve big problems. In 2024, the co-op helped people find insurance who had been dropped from their policy, conducted emergency procurement for school lunches so that students did not go hungry, and launched an accounting services program to serve our members when their rates skyrocketed. We helped dozens of institutions switch from national predatory vendors to local transparent ones and helped organize a school safety training with Capital City PCS that served 11 local schools.

The strength of our growing cooperative means that our programs are reaching more institutions than ever before. Some highlights from this year include:

CPA’s Food Service program has grown to serve 30+ schools and feed 6+ million meals to around 20,000 students. Our program focuses on connecting students with high-quality culturally-appropriate meals that they actually want to eat! Many of our schools report an increase in student participation when switching to a CPA school-lunch vendor.
CPA’s Solar program has led to the installation (or in-progress installation) of more than 1.5 megawatts of solar. That’s enough to power 250 homes and will save organizations $5 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.
CPA held 15 peer group meetings for school leaders and leaders at our faith-based institutions. These meetings serve as a regular space for leaders to discuss what is happening in their buildings, to troubleshoot, and to connect.

CPA was in the news! We received the National Cooperative Bank’s Annual Cooperative Innovation Award, which secured CPA a grant to explore expanding our school lunch offerings (which provide students access to nutritious food at budget-friendly rates) into new regions. CPA was also featured on the Power Station podcast and on the Everything Co-op radio show.

We look forward to continued growth, service, and connection in the coming years. Thank you for being part of something so powerful. Together, we have proven that when communities come together, they can have a profound impact on each other and the local economy. We wish you rest, peace, and happiness this holiday season.

Yours in cooperation,

The CPA Team

2024 at CPA Co-op: Celebrating 10 Years of Cooperative Purchasing