The New Economy Coalition (NEC) is a membership-based network representing the solidarity economy movement in the United States, organizing members into a more powerful and united force to accelerate transition from capitalism to a solidarity economy. NEC’s mission is to support a just transition from an extractive to a regenerative economy by building the scale and power of the solidarity economy movement in Black, Indigenous, and working class communities in every region of the United States. Members are a cross section of nonprofits, mission-driven businesses, grassroots community organizations, and sectoral associations that join to be part of a cross-sectoral, national network, understanding themselves as part of an international social movement ecosystem with tens of thousands of groups building a more just, liberatory, and democratic world. Founded in 2012 after the Great Recession in response to growing interest in solidarity economy practices and systemic change strategies, NEC began as a think tank modeled after the New Economics Foundation in the UK. Through internal organizing by staff, board, and members, NEC evolved from a largely white, upper class organization to one whose staff and board are majority people of color and significantly more geographically and socioeconomically diverse, shifting to understand itself as a post-capitalist project. In 2016, NEC transitioned membership governance to be more democratic with board elections and deeper member integration. In 2018, NEC shifted from traditional hierarchical nonprofit to four-person co-directorship, and by 2020 transitioned to a worker self-directed nonprofit melding worker cooperativism into the 501(c)(3) structure, with a General Circle of elected staff and member-elected board representatives managing high impact decisions. NEC envisions a world no longer dominated by capitalism or extractive systems, where everyone has what they need and people have collective agency, with global economic transformation built and led by regional solidarity economy ecosystems where community needs are controlled and governed by the people, led by those most marginalized.
Why it matters: NEC organizes diverse solidarity economy initiatives into a unified national movement powerful enough to challenge capitalism itself rather than merely reforming it at the margins. By centering Black, Indigenous, and working class communities in building regional solidarity economy ecosystems where people collectively control housing, food production, governance, and other community needs, NEC demonstrates that economic transformation requires both local self-determination and interconnected national power. The organization’s own evolution from white, upper class think tank to majority people of color worker self-directed nonprofit embodies the principle that building a solidarity economy demands organizations practice internally the democratic, anti-capitalist values they advocate externally.
