Frequently Asked Questions


Find quick answers about our programs, partnerships, webinars, and how rural electric cooperatives are driving innovation through smarter, more sustainable energy solutions.

Understanding Rural Electric Cooperatives

  • A rural electric cooperative is a utility owned and governed by the members it serves. Unlike investor-owned utilities that answer to shareholders, co-ops answer to their member-owners: the homes, farms, and businesses that buy electricity from them. Every customer is also an owner, with voting rights and a share in the co-op's financial outcomes.

  • Larger than most people realize. More than 900 rural electric cooperatives serve approximately 42 million people across 56% of the U.S. landmass, operating in 48 states.Together, they represent one of the most significant and most overlooked segments of the American energy system, and the leaders who run them make decisions every day that affect energy costs, infrastructure investment, and community resilience for tens of millions of rural Americans.

  • Co-ops are member-owned and run by a board of democratically elected member-owners, which means every major decision, from rates to long-term investments, is shaped by governance structures that reflect member interests rather than shareholder returns. They also tend to serve lower-density areas with higher infrastructure costs and tighter financial margins than investor-owned or municipal utilities, which creates a distinct set of operational and strategic challenges. Read our article on this topic at the Co-op Compass to learn more.

  • Most distribution co-ops, the ones that deliver electricity directly to homes and businesses, purchase their wholesale power from a Generation and Transmission (G&T) cooperative. G&Ts generate or procure electricity at a regional scale and deliver it to member distribution co-ops. The terms of that wholesale power relationship shape what a local co-op can offer on rates, renewables, and new member programs. Understanding the G&T relationship is one of the most important things any co-op leader can do.

  • Three groups share responsibility: member-owners, who elect the board and share in financial outcomes; a board of directors/member-owners, which sets long-term direction, approves rates and budgets, and hires the CEO; and staff, led by the CEO, who execute strategy and run day-to-day operations. The effectiveness of how these three groups work together, and the quality of information they share, is often the biggest factor in co-op performance.

  • Co-op leaders are navigating rising costs and member rate sensitivity, rapid load growth driven by EV adoption and electrification, growing expectations around renewable energy options, and aging infrastructure that needs significant capital investment. These pressures are real, and they play out against a backdrop of governance structures, wholesale power contracts, and financing relationships that were established decades ago. That's exactly the environment CIN was built to help leaders navigate.

About CIN

  • Co-op Innovation Network (CIN) is a national peer learning community and field-building organization serving rural electric cooperative leaders across the United States. We connect co-op board directors, operational executives, and the philanthropic partners who fund rural energy innovation with the practical resources, trusted peers, and proven ideas they need to lead more effectively and move their organizations forward. Learn more and explore our resources at Co-op Compass.

  • CIN primarily serves two audiences: elected board directors at rural electric cooperatives and operational leaders, including CEOs, General Managers, and senior staff. We also work with foundations and philanthropic partners who fund innovation in rural energy. If you lead a rural electric co-op or support the people who do, CIN was built with you in mind.

  • NRECA and state associations do important work, and CIN is not a replacement for either. What CIN offers is something those organizations aren't structured to provide: a peer-driven, innovation-focused learning community where co-op leaders connect directly with other practitioners who have faced the same challenges and found real solutions. We don't lobby or push a political or ideological agenda. We exist specifically to help leaders move from awareness of what's possible to real-world implementation.

  • Yes, and that commitment is foundational to everything we do. Rural electric cooperatives serve communities across the political spectrum, and the leaders who run them hold a wide range of views. CIN leads with outcomes that co-op leaders already care about, including affordability, reliability, member service, and long-term organizational health. We never frame innovation as a political position, and we never pressure co-ops to adopt any particular agenda. Every co-op is welcome here, regardless of where they stand politically or how far along they are in their innovation journey.

  • No. CIN is not a policy advocacy organization. We help co-op leaders understand the policy landscape, including federal programs, regulatory developments, and what other co-ops are doing, so they can make well-informed decisions for their own organizations. What those decisions look like is up to each co-op and the members they serve.

  • CIN is supported by philanthropic partners and foundations that invest in rural energy leadership capacity. That funding model is what allows us to offer our programs and resources free of charge to co-op leaders. We are committed to building a sustainable, diversified organizational model over time, one that reflects our long-term role as a trusted field-building partner in the rural energy space. To learn more about partnering with CIN, get in touch.

Joining & Participating

  • The easiest first step is joining our mailing list, which keeps you connected to upcoming webinars, program announcements, and network updates. From there, you can register for an Ideas for Innovation webinar, apply for the Co-op Leadership Cohort, or reach out directly. There's no membership fee and no obligation, just a community of co-op leaders doing the same work you are.

  • The Co-op Leadership Cohort is a free, application-based, three-month online program for elected co-op board directors. Taught by experienced co-op changemakers, the cohort covers co-op business models, energy technology trends, energy transition opportunities, coalition building, and board leadership skills. Participants move through the curriculum alongside a small group of peers from co-ops across the country, building knowledge, confidence, and relationships that last well beyond the program. Visit the Leadership Cohort page to learn more.

  • The cohort is designed specifically for elected board directors at rural electric cooperatives. If you're a recently elected director looking for structured, practical leadership development and a peer group that understands your role, this program was built for you. Visit the Leadership Cohort page for details and to apply.

  • Ideas for Innovation is a recurring webinar series featuring practitioner-led case studies and policy deep dives on topics relevant to co-op leaders. Past sessions have covered grid modernization, battery storage, on-bill financing, EV programs, and agrivoltaics. Webinars are free, hosted on Zoom, and open to any co-op leader who wants to learn from peers who have actually implemented innovative programs. They're also a great low-commitment way to experience CIN's community before applying for the cohort.

    We're always looking for new ideas that would be valuable to your co-op. Feel free to contact us with any suggestions or topics that you’d like to see covered!

  • The Co-op Compassis a deep, action-ready guide to designing and implementing innovative programs for co-op members. It's built for board directors and operational leaders who want practical frameworks they can bring directly into their co-op, not theoretical models that don't account for cooperative realities. Join our mailing list to stay connected and get the latest updates.

  • No. CIN's programs, including the Leadership Cohort, the Ideas for Innovation Webinar Series, and the Changemaker's Playbook, are free to co-op leaders. Removing cost as a barrier to participation is a core part of how CIN operates. The only investment required is your time and engagement.

For Funders & Partners

  • More than 900 rural electric cooperatives serve 42 million people across 56% of the U.S. landmass. The leaders of those co-ops, boards and staff alike, make decisions every day that determine energy costs, infrastructure investment, and the pace of energy transition for tens of millions of rural Americans. Strengthening the capacity of those leaders to make better, more informed decisions is one of the most direct levers available for driving durable change at the community level. And because these leaders live and work in the communities they serve, that change comes from within, driven by people who already hold the trust of their neighbors.

  • The rural electric cooperative sector has historically lacked a credible, field-building organization specifically focused on leadership development and peer-driven innovation. CIN fills a specific and largely unoccupied niche: a national peer learning community that connects co-op leaders across organizations and geographies, helps them move from awareness to implementation of leading-edge projects, and documents the resulting progress in ways that are visible and replicable.

  • CIN's theory of change is straightforward: better-informed, better-connected co-op leaders make better decisions for their organizations and members. A board director who understands battery storage is more likely to approve a pilot. A CEO who has peer-validated an on-bill financing model is more likely to implement one. The Leadership Cohort, Webinar Series, and Co-op Compass are all designed to shorten the distance between awareness and action, and we track program participation, network growth, and co-op-level outcomes to document that progress over time.

  • This is one of the most important things we do, and we do it deliberately. CIN leads with the outcomes co-op leaders already care about, including affordability, reliability, member service, and long-term organizational health, rather than with climate or political framing that can close doors in rural communities. Energy transition outcomes emerge naturally from effective co-op leadership. That approach allows CIN to earn trust across a wide range of co-ops and leaders, including those who might disengage from organizations perceived as ideologically driven.

  • CIN works with foundations and philanthropic partners in several ways: general operating support that sustains CIN's core programs and infrastructure; co-branded or co-sponsored initiative development aligned to funder priorities; curriculum sponsorship for specific cohort tracks or webinar series topics; and impact reporting partnerships that use CIN's network data to document progress on rural energy transition goals. We approach every funder relationship as a genuine partnership, with transparent communication, shared learning, and mutual accountability. Reach out to start a conversation.

  • We track program participation and network growth, collect qualitative and quantitative data from cohort participants, document co-op-level actions and program adoptions that follow from CIN engagement, and publish resources like the Co-op Compass that demonstrate our role as a trusted knowledge hub for the sector. We are committed to honest, transparent reporting, including proactive communication when things don't go as planned. We know that funders need confidence not just in our intentions but in our organizational capacity to execute and learn over time.