Our Story

Allied Community and Co-operative Shared Services (ACCESS) is a shared service nonprofit co-operative specifically formed to provide professional administrative back-office support for social purpose organizations, including co-ops, nonprofits, charities, childcare centres and social enterprises across Canada. It is an innovative, collaborative solution that fills service gaps and increases efficiencies, allowing social purpose organizations to focus on what they do best.

In May 2021, the Government of Alberta provided the Alberta Community Co-operative Association (ACCA) funding through the Civil Society Fund. ACCA and its Executive Member Associations: Volunteer Alberta (VA), Econocoop and British Columbia Co-operative Association (BCCA), worked collaboratively to launch ACCESS. Their primary outcome is to build equitable access to qualified, co-aligned professional service providers through strategic collaboration with regional, provincial & national partners.

Our Board of Directors and Operational Team, comprised of provincial and national member associations, actively work to determine how to best combine critical corporate, legal and operational resources to share back-office infrastructure successfully.

Our Mission

Building a team of specialized service providers to share among nonprofits, co-ops, and social enterprises – reducing organizational pressures and filling operational gaps.

Our Vision

Collaborative and well-resourced nonprofit, co-operative, and social enterprise organizations strengthened through shared services.

Collaborating coworkers

Accessibility:

We provide equitable access to specialized services at a reasonable price.

Our Values


Alignment:

We understand the needs of nonprofits, co-ops, and social enterprises and find service providers to meet those needs.


Collaboration:

We are non-competitive by default. We uphold, encourage, & facilitate collaboration in the sector.


Quality:

We provide qualified, professional, & specialized services.



Integrity:

We act with integrity to build and maintain trusting relationships with our members, stakeholders, and the sector as a whole.



Efficiency:

Guided by a vision of abundance and possibility, we help leverage organizations’ combined demand and resources to increase efficiencies

ACCESS Shared Services working team


Qualified Professional Services

Access to specialized services that already understand and support the unique needs of nonprofits, co-ops, and social enterprises.




Efficiency

Guided by a vision of abundance and possibility, shared services help leverage organizations’ combined demand and resources to increase efficiencies.







Sustainability

Creating long-term systems and reducing the risk of losing institutional knowledge and practice when an individual staff person leaves.








Employee Satisfaction

Allows skilled staff to focus on what they do best, rather than learning on the go and being responsible for tasks they are not specifically trained for. This creates higher job satisfaction and better outcomes for your programs.

Building collaboration and capacity in the nonprofit and co-operative sector through the development of a shared services model from which members can work together – smarter!