Andrew Delmonte

Research Collaborator

Andrew Delmonte has been a contributor to the research process since 2019, through participating in numerous interviews and reviewing draft content for the book manuscript Beloved Economies.

Andrew Delmonte (they/them) is an organizer, facilitator, and business developer who believes in the power of communities and workplaces to govern themselves. Andrew serves as Director of Cooperative Development for Cooperation Buffalo, which mobilizes workers to achieve economic security through cooperative business ownership in Buffalo’s marginalized communities. Cooperation Buffalo is a part of PUSH Buffalo’s New Economy department, and is a member of Seed Commons, a national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control.

A lifelong resident of Buffalo’s West Side, Andrew has 10+ years’ experience assisting cooperatives, social enterprises, independent small business owners, and frontline community organizations with planning and management decisions, financial strategy, governance, conflict resolution, and facilitation. As a business advisor for the Small Business Development Center at SUNY Buffalo State, they launched the Social Enterprise Center, a project to support small businesses pursuing a triple bottom line. Andrew previously organized and advocated for independent businesses as President and Program Director of Buffalo First, helping to shift public opinion, public policy, purchasing dollars, and community investment into Buffalo’s local economy.

Nationally, they serve on the Board of Seed Commons and as a member of the Seed Commons Sustainability Committee, which makes lending decisions for the cooperative. At home, they are a former member-resident and Board member of Nickel City Housing Cooperative, and currently live in a collective home with 4 humans and 4 animals.