Building Wealth for Working People.
Who We Are
Inland Cooperative Services is a worker-owned business support cooperative helping small and local businesses, cooperatives, employee-owned enterprises, and other values-aligned organizations thrive.
Our Focus
At Inland Cooperative Services, we believe that work-life balance starts with doing work right — with fairness, transparency, and shared prosperity at the heart of every decision.
Our work centers on supporting workforce development and economic diversity. By offering clear financial guidance as well as training and education, we help organizations find balance, reduce risk, create stability, and create wealth.
We provide bookkeeping, accounting, financial advisory, co-op lending, and technical assistance designed to make financial management more accessible, affordable, and empowering for working people.
To continue strengthening the foundation for family-sustaining jobs and more equitable, resilient local economies. We offer free education and workshops, as well as sliding scale business support services for cooperative businesses.
Our home base is in the heart of the Inland Northwest region: Spokane, Washington.
Better Work for a Better World.
What We Stand For
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Our mission is to create family-sustaining jobs, expand access to business ownership, and grow local wealth — especially within communities that have been historically marginalized or left out of economic opportunity. We work to build a stronger, more resilient Inland Northwest by supporting small businesses, cooperatives, and community-minded organizations.
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We imagine an Inland Northwest where everyone has the chance to thrive — where people have a real voice, local dollars stay local, and family-sustaining jobs help build stability and pride across our region. Together, we’re growing a connected, cooperative economy rooted in equity, belonging, and shared prosperity.
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At Inland Cooperative Services, our values guide how we work and who we work with.
We uphold equity, diversity, and collaboration as the foundation for stronger communities.
We prioritize resilience, adaptability, and consistency in our work – responding thoughtfully rather than reacting hastily.
We believe in providing genuine value through education, training, and shared learning.
Rooted in locality and humanity, we strive to build systems that create lasting, positive impact.
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As a worker-owned co-op, our values guide everything we do:
Self-Help & Self-Responsibility – We take initiative and lift each other up.
Democracy – Every voice matters, and every member has input.
Equity & Inclusion – We actively work to remove barriers and build opportunity for marginalized communities.
Solidarity – We stand with our partners and neighbors for the common good.
Learning & Cooperation – We grow by learning together and sharing what we know.
We operate according to the globally recognized principles that guide cooperatives and worker-owned organizations:
Voluntary and Open Membership – Anyone who shares our values and is willing to accept the responsibilities of membership can join, without discrimination.
Democratic Member Control – Members have a voice in decisions, one member, one vote.
Member Economic Participation – Profits are shared fairly among members, supporting collective success.
Autonomy and Independence – We control our organization while collaborating with others.
Education, Training, and Information – We provide learning opportunities for members and our community.
Cooperation Among Cooperatives – We work with other cooperatives to strengthen the movement.
Concern for Community – We aim to positively impact the communities we serve, creating lasting value.
Meet The People
Member description below reads from left to right
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Board President- Project Steward - Worker Owner
What do you love most about living in the Inland Northwest?
I love how close we are to the outdoors – mountains, rivers, and forests are all within easy reach. I also appreciate how our communities work to make these spaces more accessible to everyone, especially those who didn’t always have the opportunity to experience or enjoy the outdoors.
What skills or experience do you bring that help small businesses thrive?
I’ve worked everywhere from nursing homes and restaurants to wellness clinics, dispensaries, and property management. I bring a wide range of experiences from working in both big and small businesses – all centered around customer service and people. Those roles taught me how to really listen, understand and prioritize what folks need, and find ways to support them.
What’s a problem you love helping clients solve?
I love helping people make sense of concepts that might seem complicated at first. When someone says they don’t know anything about co-ops, it’s fun to show them they probably understand more than they think. I really enjoy watching that shift from curiosity to confidence – when people realize there’s a different, more community minded way to do business that actually feels good and makes sense.
How do you see our work contributing to a more resilient regional economy?
I see our work helping build a region where more people can create stability and wealth for themselves – especially workers who don’t feel called to a traditional college path. Entrepreneurship shouldn’t only be accessible to those with wealth or privilege. Worker cooperatives open that door by making ownership and collaboration more approachable and less risky. We’re proving that community care and shared success can replace rugged individualism.
Why do you believe small and local businesses are important to our region?
I believe small and local businesses are the heart of a community. They create space for connection and sharing space between neighbors, workers, and the places. While keeping wealth and decision-making rooted at home. A dollar spent at a locally owned business can circulate through the community up to three times. Every interaction is an investment in the people who share and sustain our community.
Contact: emilyd@inlandcs.org
LinkedIn: Emily Daley
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Board Treasurer - Accountant - Worker Owner
What do you love most about living in the Inland Northwest?
Having grown up here, I didn’t see all the excellent things about Spokane and the INW until I moved away for 16 years. Returning here in 2016, I truly appreciate the closeness of amenities and recreation and spending less time in my car just to do the basics. I love the Spokane School District and every single public park, and I love how much more international and eclectic the area has become since the ‘90s.
What skills or experience do you bring that help small businesses thrive?
I especially love helping clients avoid future problems. Like getting maintenance on your vehicle before a long road trip, I like looking at payroll structures, reporting requirements, and other issues and tuning them up before they become a pain point. I also live for making order out of chaos. Just day-to-day bookkeeping can help prevent issues, or at least catch them as soon as possible.
What’s a problem you love helping clients solve?
I have worked in admin and management for a variety of different industries over my 27 years of experience, all local businesses of varying size: Salon/spa, herbal supplements, motorcycle gear, specialty coffee, naturopathic medicine, nonprofit, farmer co-op/food hub, and telemarketing, to name a few. This breadth of experience has helped me to learn about my client’s businesses from a place of curiosity while utilizing my knowledge base. I have learned where many businesses get tripped up by governmental structures that are not built for them, as well as how to limit their liability exposure. Every new client is both an opportunity to learn and to teach.
How do you see our work contributing to a more resilient regional economy?
Every small business that succeeds means sustainable jobs that can support families in our region. Every household that has a dependable, well-paid job means more spending power at other businesses in the area. And even more importantly, the psychological benefit of doing work that has meaning for businesses in which we are invested - literally and figuratively - benefits the workers and everyone around them. People are more than workers with wallets, and our economy should reflect that.
Why do you believe small and local businesses are important to our region?
A greater diversity of business types and sizes, all locally based, creates a protective shield against the national and global economic instability that keeps happening. Grocery stores that buy from local farmers, bakers and brewers that use regional grain, credit unions that use funds to loan out to local businesses - these and others all help us absorb the financial shocks we have no control over. Having a rich, interdependent local economy helps keep and add jobs, raise wages, and grow our independence as the economic hub of the Inland NW region.
Contact: emilyh@inlandcs.org
LinkedIn: Emily Himmelright
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Board Vice President - General Manager - Worker Owner
What do you love most about living in the Inland Northwest?
I love living halfway between humanity and the wilderness. We enjoy the benefits of the forest, some of the most fertile agricultural land, and the beauty of the full four seasons.
What skills or experience do you bring that help small businesses thrive?
I’ve been working for, in, and with small businesses my entire adult life. I’ve been everything from a dishwasher, to the office manager, to a barista. Eventually I started being an owner of these businesses as well.
What’s a problem you love helping clients solve?
I love translating financial statements into useful and helpful information for people. It was a big step for my own career when I learned to turn these intimidating tools into an asset, and I get great satisfaction from helping others do the same.How do you see our work contributing to a more resilient regional economy?
Our region doesn’t lack in talent, ingenuity, or skill. We need an economy that focuses on retaining the wealth we generate, here in our community. We need an economy that keeps people here, and inspires them to build their lives here as well. We have a lot of potential, and an economy that focuses on harnessing that potential for the greater benefit of our region, should be an investment we’re all willing to make.
Why do you believe small and local businesses are important to our region?
Small and local businesses, like a lot of different places, are the lifeblood of our communities. They’re our neighborhood grocery stores, our coffee shops, our hardware stores, our downtown. Without these places, we’d only have places to buy things. A chain-store will never create a community like a small and local business will.
Contact: micheals@inlandcs.org
LinkedIn: Micheal Snow
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Board Secretary - Bookkeeper - Worker Owner
What do you love most about living in the Inland Northwest?
The rivers, the food, the creatives, and the ever-present whiff of rebellion and innovation.
What skills or experience do you bring that help small businesses thrive?
Before helping found Inland Cooperative Services I spent fifteen years managing a boutique law firm. In doing so I’ve worn just about every hat there is to wear in the small-business world, so I have the utmost empathy when working with clients who are trying to wear all the hats at once. I know their time is short and their information may be scattered, and what they need most from their support network is accuracy, reliability, and efficiency. It’s my pleasure to provide it.
What’s a problem you love helping clients solve?
Bring me your messiest financial books and set me loose. I relish bringing order to chaos.
How do you see our work contributing to a more resilient regional economy?
For the same reason that a monoculture is bad for the forest, an economic landscape that relies on a few large employers is destined to struggle. A diverse business terrain allows for expansion and retraction with minimal risk to the whole. The more healthy businesses we have, the better.
Why do you believe small and local businesses are important to our region?
Can you imagine if our only employer was the Amazon warehouse? Barf.
Contact: terrip@inlandcs.org
Proud Memberships and Proud Partnerships
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