Community investor is a person who is not a worker-member of a worker cooperative but holds a share or other proprietary interest in it, usually by investing capital through 📝Community Investor Shares.
The term comes from California's Cooperative Corporation Law as amended by 📝California AB 816 in 2015, which defines a community investor as "a person who is not a worker-member and who holds a share" (Corporations Code §12238). The role lets a 📝Worker Cooperative accept capital from neighbors, customers, support organizations, or conventional investors while its 📝Worker-Members keep control.
A community investor's voting power is set in the cooperative's articles or bylaws and is limited to approving a merger, sale of major assets, reorganization, or dissolution; it never includes the right to propose those actions (§12253). Community investors are paid through the terms of their shares rather than through 📝Patronage Dividends, which the law reserves for worker-members.