Constitution Builder

This Constitution Builder guides you to customise a constitution for a non-distributing co-operative with share capital.

A non-distributing co-operative with shares is a not-for-profit entity. It cannot distribute profits or surpluses to its members. All profits are reinvested to build or improve member services. Shares in this type of co-op provide the capital that the co-operative needs to acquire assets or infrastructure as part of its business activities.

The constitution for this co-operative type includes rules about share capital. If you are not sure whether your co-operative needs to have share capital, download and review How to choose your co-op type or go back and choose another type of co-operative.

Accessing and saving your constitution

If you wish to complete your constitution over multiple sittings, click the Save button within the form and register your email address when prompted. A unique link will be emailed to you, allowing you to return to your form from any computer for up to 30 days from the start date.

Unfinished constitutions are automatically removed after 30 days, so please ensure you complete and download your documents before this period expires.

The emailed link you receive if you ‘save and finish later’ only provides access to documents still in draft mode and cannot be used to access completed documents.

Once a document has been completed, you must download it directly from the webpage in editable Microsoft Word format. You cannot return to this page after completing the builder.

Please note: The Co-op Builder tool will not accommodate formatting for paragraphs, lists and tables. The information inserted in text boxes will lose any formatting. 

When you download your document and check it for accuracy you will need to adjust any required formatting. If you intend to insert a table then you can insert it after downloading.