David J Thompson

A black-and-white photo of D J Thompson who has written hundreds articles on coop co-op cooperatives

David J. Thompson was the president of Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. He was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in 2010. Thompson is the author of four books and over 400 articles about affordable housing and cooperatives. During his professional career, Thompson has developed or co-developed housing that is home to over 10,000 people. He currently possesses the largest private collection of cooperative books and historic items.

Black and white photo of D J Thompson who has written hundreds articles on coop co-op cooperatives'

  • David J. Thompson of Thompson Consulting and former co-principal of Neighborhood Partners, LLC, has worked for the national cooperative organizations of the United States, Japan and the United Nations. In 2010, he was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame. David was at the United Nations and the White House to celebrate the 2012 UNInternational Year of Cooperatives. In2013, David received the VoorhisAward, the highest honor of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC) and in 2022 the President’s Award.  David is lead narrator on “Food For Change”, (2014) a film on food co-ops. David was advisor to ”Common Good” (2021) a film about racism/co-ops. 

    From 1985-1991, David was Vice President, Western States and Director, International Relations for the National Cooperative Business Association. From 1976-1985, David co-chaired California’s efforts to create the National Cooperative Bank (NCB), was the first NCB co-op employee (1980), then Director of National Planning,and later Regional Director of NCB's 13 state Western Region where he supervised loans to develop over 2,300 units of co-op housing. One of his projects, Santa Rosa Creek Commons won a HUD commendation award. David was a board member of Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) $3.8Bn in sales, 22 million members, the world’s largest consumer co-op. 

    David isPresident ofthe Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (TPCF). Under David’s leadership, TPCF has created Cooperative Community Funds (CCF) for 45 US food cooperatives. TPCF is the largest co-op funder of US cooperative development organizations leveraging yearly $50 million in capital.  For its work on CCF, TPCF was presented with the 2019 CCMABoard Service Award.

     In 1979, David lobbied for passage of AB 1364, (Bates), the nation’s first law creating Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives. In 2010, David led the drafting of a full revision of the law, AB 1246 (Jones). David created the Kagawa Fund with funds raised from Japanese and US Co-ops. David is a co-founder of Co-opportunity, the largest food co-op in Southern California (sales of $30 million). He is also vice-chair of the Yolo Federal Credit Union; a community chartered credit union ($400M+ in assets).

    David authored Co-opportunity: The Rise of a Community Owned Market and Weavers of Dreams: Founders of the Modern Cooperative Movement. He co-authored Cooperation Works! and A Day in the Life of Cooperative America. Davidwrote Credit at the Grassroots for the United Nations. David was Editor of Where Credit Was Due,the creation of the National Cooperative Bank. He has written over 400 articles for the Co-operative News (UK) the Cooperative Housing Quarterly (USA), Co-op Weekly, Communities, Davis Enterprise, In Context, NonProfit Quarterly, Northern Life (UK),Post & Courier, Ramparts, Sacramento Bee, Shareable, Shelterforce,Progressive the BBC and others. His book, “AgainstSlavery and for Civil Rights: Cooperatives” is out in 2026.

    David has the world's largest private library on co-ops. He was born in Blackpool, England, and lived also in Boston, Lincolnshire. David is winner of the “Cooperative Service Award” from the Consumer Cooperative Management Association and twice “Author of the Year” from NAHC. David has a Licensed Trade Diploma from Blackpool Technical College, UK , an AA from Santa Monica College where he won the Dean Ruenitz Award and a BA (Sociology) and an MA (Architecture & Urban Planning) from the University of California at Los Angeles where he won the Dean's Award for Community Service.  In 1973, with his brother, Philip as Director, David co-produced “A Place Called Ardoyne” (Won the Silver Hugo Award, Chicago Film Festival) about the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. David wrote the film narration for Stephen Rea, Oscar Nominee for Best Actor in the “Crying Game.” For his work in affordable housing and cooperatives, commendations have come from the California Assemblyand Senate and  members of the US Congress.