Save Our Bank - Help fund our vision for the next ten years

Save Our Bank is a democratic union of customers of the Co-operative Bank in the UK. It was formed in 2013 - when the bank hit financial difficulties - by a group of customers who wanted to preserve its unique ethical stance.

Ten years later, the Bank is no longer in distress, and its ethics are as firmly embedded as ever. We played an important part in this success and have now created a vision for what the next ten years of the Customer Union might look like.

Just as we needed to raise funds to get the Customer Union off the ground all those years ago, we need to do another crowd funder in 2023 to help us make this vision happen.

It has three main elements:

1. From customers to owners

We need to do detailed research and development to help us create a fund to acquire at least some shares collectively in the bank. We think this might also create a model that could be used to build co-operative customer stakes in businesses everywhere. Because of this, we have already raised £4,500 towards this project from three major UK retail co-ops.

2. Growing the Union

Although we have around 1,200 paying members, with the bank's current 3.1 million retail customers, we think we could be much bigger. This will need us to invest in more capacity, to work with the bank, and to explore a new name now that its ethics are secure. It will also help us become more resilient as some of our older members retire.

3. Changing how other banks work

In the past, the Co-operative Bank, as an ethical pioneer, showed how it was possible to do things differently. If we can continue to help it lead on ethics, and on the way it works with its customers (and with us as the union), we hope to use our learnings to influence participation and ethics systematically in the wider mainstream banking sector too.

So support your Union here!

We have calculated that, with our ordinary member income, we need to raise an additional £18,000 to make all this happen.

• If we can raise £6,700 we can begin to work on our ownership project right away (2023-4).
• If we can raise a further £6,300 we can get started on the growing the membership too (2024-6).
• If we can raise the full amount, we can create a formal plan to work with the bank to drive more ethical choices across the whole banking sector (2026-30).

The Customer Union has shown how individuals can make a difference by joining together to take action on issues that are important to all of us. Help us take the next steps on our important journey.

If for any reason you prefer to donate outside of the FundRazr platform, you can also make a donation at our site here, or just send a cheque in the post to the address on our website. 

For more information on any of the above, please contact us using info@saveourbank.coop.

We plan to run this crowdfunder initially from February 10th to May 10th 2023. If each member could find us £15, we would make the full target too. Please donate using the buttons below.