The Soul International Cooperative consists of only individual members. These members belong to one or two categories. First, all members have a membership of belonging. Secondly, some members have extended to a membership of community builders. With this extended membership, people can initiate projects using and applying the ‘commons’ of the cooperative in their projects. With the commons we mean the accumulated knowledge, experience and practice about community building, expressed in the conceptual framework and materials created by soul.com. This is the lifeblood of the cooperative. Just like a natural ecosystem, such as a forest or pond that provides food and resources to the community, there is also a knowledge ecosystem that allows the cooperative to grow and develop. It is our ‘shared resources’, our ‘commons’ that allows all members to develop and learn. 

On one hand the community builders then have access to these commons to support their projects. On the other hand, they are also responsible to nurture these commons, by means of financial flows and offering their experience to allow the body of knowledge to grow. 

By initiating or collaborating in community building projects, community builders can generate a flow of income providing them with a livelihood and allowing them to contribute to the funds of the cooperative. To facilitate the flow of funds, there is a need for “Soul Administrative Partners” (SAP): companies or organisations that are legally registered in a country. 

The role of the SAP in these collaborations is:

• to formalize agreements between the SAP, a partner/customer and the community builders;
• to accommodate the financial administration and the flow of funds between the three players mentioned above;
• to accommodate the contribution to the soul.com funds in name of the community builders,
• and to be fully transparent of all transactions within the context of this collaboration (open books).