communitysupported

The term communitysupported is used to describe initiatives and organizations that rely on direct involvement and financial backing from members of a local community rather than solely on market transactions or state funding. The term often denotes cooperative, shared-responsibility models that seek to align producers, consumers, and sometimes workers around a common purpose.

The most widely recognized instance is community-supported agriculture (CSA), where individuals purchase shares of a farm's harvest in advance in exchange for regular produce, reducing market risk for farmers and connecting eaters to their food. The concept also appears in open source and cooperative sectors as community-supported software or community-supported housing and journalism, where members contribute resources or labor to sustain a project.

Typical structures include member dues or share purchases, volunteer labor, and democratic governance through member assemblies or cooperative boards. Funding may involve recurring subscriptions, donations, sponsorships, or revenue from selling goods and services to the broader public while keeping decision-making in the hands of members.

Benefits commonly cited are strengthened local economies, risk sharing, improved access to goods or services, transparency, and social cohesion. Critics note potential instability from volunteer dependence, possible inclusivity challenges, and the need for skilled management to balance missions with financial viability.

The history of community-supported models traces to cooperative movements in the 19th and 20th centuries, with CSA movements gaining prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as a response to industrial agriculture. Over time, the concept has broadened to digital and urban contexts, with varying legal forms such as cooperatives, associations, and non-profit entities.