Work for CPA MA

 
 

Our Story

The beginnings of CPA MA started with conversations in 2018 and 2019. Leaders from Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and the Ujima Project were interested in bringing the group purchasing model first developed in Washington D.C. to Boston. Our organizing work got off the ground in 2020 with a first group electricity purchasing of 28 organizations. We formed a Steering Team representing powerful leaders from the community and our purchasing institutions (which today is the CPA MA Board of Directors). CPA MA incorporated as an independent cooperative in February 2023 and voted to become a member of the CPA Network. In the past three years, we saved organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars, and shifted over $300,000 to BIPOC-owned businesses. We know our impact is only just beginning!

Co-own CPA with us.

At CPA, we practice workplace democracy. We invite you to co-own the ongoing creation of CPA’s workplace democracy that allows staff to thrive and do their best work. We expect you (as well as all staff) to add capacity to other staff members across the organization when needed and serve in internal work circles that support CPA’s sociocracy structure, work alongside DC Circle to level up DC’s growth and resiliency, and be an active partner to CPA staff in our mutual effort to build an effective, mission- and values-aligned organization. You will also have the opportunity to become a worker-owner of the CPA Network (details still in development).

Our cooperative integrates three levels of work:

  • Serve Members’ Economic Needs: CPA MA offers purchasing programs in electricity, natural gas, waste hauling, janitorial and facilities maintenance, commercial insurance, and copier leases. We continue to explore new program opportunities based on the challenges our members experience and our ability to create impact. By organizing the collective purchasing power and knowledge of community institutions, we build power for stronger negotiations, deeper savings, and better terms and service. We currently support contracts for over 50 organizations including libraries, congregations from multiple faiths, multi-campus charter schools, and human services organizations.

  • Organize Cooperation: CPA MA is a community-owned cooperative. Currently seven organizations are member-owners of CPA MA. Members democratically elect the board (1-member, 1-vote), help guide our strategy, and can receive a dividend in years of profitability. We educate our participants in the principles of cooperatives and foster cooperation between organizations that are typically isolated from one another. 

  • Advance Racial Equity & Environmental Sustainability: Our institutions are passionate about leveraging their spending & procurements for racial justice by working with Black and Brown-owned businesses. While not every industry currently has  “minority-owned” businesses operating in Greater Boston, we are clear that we will prioritize, pursue, and solve the barriers to these opportunities whenever possible. We also bring a strong attention to the environmental sustainability and labor standards of the companies we contract with. We work closely with racial equity, community organizing, and solidarity economy movements.

Our Hiring Values:

The Community Purchasing Alliance recognizes that in the US, legacies of oppression are perpetuated through, among other things, hiring practices. White people, men, straight people, and wealthy people are given access and preferentially hired into well paying, high-esteemed jobs over people of color, women, trans people, queer people, disabled people, displaced people, and poor and working class people. CPA is committed to participating in socially just hiring practices that counter these pressures. Through this practice we strive to maintain a cooperative make-up which values and centers the voices of those who have been historically excluded from positions of leadership and power. 

We make an intentional effort to encourage and recruit a diverse applicant pool with regard to race, ethnicity, sex, gender, religion, age, ability, size, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, economic status, class background, language, nation of origin, and documentation status.

(Language adopted from www.aorta.coop)