Congratulations to the 2020 Cooperative Hall of Fame inductees. Your service is an inspiration for the entire cooperative community.

Hall of Fame Sponsor

Hall of Fame Sponsors

CoBank, a national cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America and member of the Farm Credit System is pleased to sponsor the 2020 Cooperative Hall of Fame. The success of Farm Credit – a national network of cooperatively organized banks and lending associations specifically chartered to serve agriculture and rural America – depends on the leadership of committed, far-sighted men and women who understand the challenges and opportunities facing the country’s rural communities. We congratulate the 2020 inductees for the extraordinary contributions they have made to the cooperative community.

IFFCO is proud to sponsor the Cooperative Hall of Fame this year and its values associated with American co-ops for the last five decades. It's our privilege to salute all the inductees to the 2020 Cooperative Hall of Fame.

In 1967, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative Limited (IFFCO) was established by an initiative of NCBA CLUSA in collaboration with ACDI/VOCA for the welfare of Indian farmers. Today, IFFCO is the world’s largest fertiliser cooperative with 40 million farmers as its members and has extended its wings overseas in Jordan, Oman, Dubai and Senegal. IFFCO is proud to sponsor the Cooperative Hall of Fame this year and its values associated with American co-ops for the last five decades. It's our privilege to salute all the inductees to the 2020 Cooperative Hall of Fame.

IFFCO is wholly owned by cooperatives with farmers at the heart of all its initiatives, including environment friendly organic farming to promote inclusive sustainable development based on cooperative principles for ensuring last mile connectivity through technology based solutions.

Recently, IFFCO has achieved one more milestone by launching the nano technology based Agri-inputs for the benefit of farmers worldwide.

National Co+op Grocers (NCG) is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. We represent 147 food co-ops operating over 200 stores in 38 states with combined annual sales over $2.1 billion and over 1.3 million consumer-owners. NCG helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere.

NCG serves as a unified voice to advocate for issues that are important to food co-op owners, shoppers and communities. Together we are working to build a sustainable food system, ensure the fair treatment of people, protect and preserve a healthy environment and promote the cooperative business model.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From booming suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape and serve 42 million Americans.

As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to America’s rural communities. They invest $12 billion annually into the areas that they serve and are making energy and broadband investments to give communities the flexibility to adapt to tomorrow’s energy and technology needs. Electric co-ops have launched community microgrids, lead the nation in the deployment of community solar facilities, and are partners in a new XPRIZE carbon capture research project.

CFC proudly salutes Ben Burkett, Everett M. Dobrinski, Carmen Huertas-Noble, and Michael Mercer on their induction into the Cooperative Hall of Fame. Created and owned by America’s electric cooperative network, CFC, a nonprofit finance cooperative with approximately $27 billion in assets, provides capital and industry-leading financial products to serve the needs of our member-owners—America’s 900-plus not-for-profit, consumer-controlled electric cooperatives.

CFC operates under the seven cooperative principles and our core values of Service, Integrity and Excellence. By delivering unparalleled industry expertise, flexibility and responsiveness, we help our members maintain a sophisticated system of generation, transmission and distribution resources that spans 75 percent of the United States. This infrastructure provides a safe, reliable and affordable flow of power to 42 million consumers each day and plays a critical role in boosting the nation’s economy and rural quality of life.

Nationwide is proud to be a long-standing sponsor of the Cooperative Hall of Fame and congratulates the heroes of the 2020 class of inductees.

As a company founded on cooperative principles and with several former leaders as Hall of Fame members, Nationwide remains committed to supporting the ideals of the cooperative movement and the Hall of Fame.

In 1926, Nationwide was started by innovative thinkers with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. These visionary leaders knew the importance of cooperative enterprise when they formed the company to provide affordable automobile insurance for rural farmer members. One of those early leaders, Murray Lincoln, eventually helped spread cooperative ideals across the globe.

Today, cooperative principles remain an important part of Nationwide’s culture and foundation. The company continues to be led by farmers and remains owned by its policyholders. As a part of the cooperative family, Nationwide is proud to be on your side to protect people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care.

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Banquet Sponsors

CHS Inc., a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States, is pleased to sponsor the 2020 Cooperative Hall of Fame. Diversified in energy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to helping its customers, farmer-owners and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS is committed to extending the positive impact of the cooperative system to make a meaningful difference in agriculture and our hometown communities.

Congratulations to this year’s Cooperative Hall of Fame inductees; we applaud you for your innovation and strong leadership in advancing the cooperative business model.

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is a national, farmer-owned dairy cooperative focused on quality, innovation and the future of family dairies. DFA empowers nearly 14,000 family farmers through our core business of marketing members’ milk, paying them a competitive price and being a leader in the dairy industry. We also offer programs and services that make it easier and more profitable for our members to farm.

With 45 plants nationwide, DFA manufactures a variety of dairy products, including fluid milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, dairy ingredients and more, that connect our Cooperative’s family farms with regional brands such as Borden® Cheese, Plugra® Butter and Kemps®. On a global scale, we work with some of the world’s largest food companies to develop ingredients their customers are craving, provide high-quality raw milk for use in a variety of dairy products and create innovative dairy products for families around the globe.

We’re honored to be a sponsor for the 2020 Cooperative Hall of Fame and congratulate the 2020 inductees for their leadership and dedication to the cooperative community.

National Cooperative Bank (NCB) provides comprehensive banking products and services to cooperatives, their members and other socially responsible organizations throughout the country. What makes NCB unique is that the bank was created to address the financial needs of an underserved market niche — people who join together cooperatively to meet personal, social or business needs, especially in low-income communities.

Customers that choose NCB create impact in the areas they care about — affordable housing, access to healthy food, small business, community health care and renewable energy. Your choices reflect your values. Your bank should, too.

We are honored to be the sponsor for CDF’s Cooperative Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Ben Burkett, Everett M. Dobrinski, Carmen Huertas-Noble and Michael Mercer for your dedication and commitment to the cooperative sector that will forever have an impact on our world.

As a collaborative partner in, advocate for, and driver of an Inclusive Economy, NCBA CLUSA envisions a world where people are empowered to contribute to shared prosperity and well-being for themselves and future generations. As the primary voice of cooperatives in the United States and a leader in resilient, sustainable development around the world, NCBA CLUSA leverages the cooperative business model and the shared resources of our movement to engage, partner with and empower people from all walks of life, and in particular those left behind by a shifting economy and facing the greatest barriers to achieving this goal.

In the United States and around the world NCBA CLUSA advocates, promotes and builds capacity at all levels to create innovative, sustainable solutions for communities through the cooperative model.

Our heartfelt congratulations to the 2020 class of inductees. We are honored to be a sponsor of this event that celebrates a lifetime of contributions made by these individuals to the cooperative community.