At the September 11–13 Up & Coming conference in Kalamazoo, Columinate’s Don Moffitt was honored with the Cooperative Champion Award. The award was conferred by Food Co-op Initiative at the annual food co-op startup conference, a spirited national meeting for these community-based ventures and their professional supporters and allies.

For years, Don Moffitt has been offering expert guidance on developing pro forma financial statements that help these fledgling co-ops chart their way to achievable goals and financial indicators. Moffitt’s business signature, after his name, adds the line: Inside the Numbers LLC.

John Guerra, store development director at National Co+op Grocers and an FCI board member, introduced the Cooperative Champion Award but without initially naming the winner. Guerra listed five points that were the basis for the award—an impressive testimonial in themselves to Don Moffitt’s work:

• Very experienced in both grocery and the co-operative space
• Put in a position where their services were needed more than they expected, they needed to step up and definitely did so
• Worked with dozens of startups
• Frequently had years-long engagements with co-ops, leading to close relationships forged during often difficult conversations
• Always approaches their work with humility and positivity

Adding to this, FCI’s Interim Director JQ Hannah praised Moffitt not only for his pro forma work, but also for his dedication to making sure his clients understand what they are looking at. Hannah called out to the crowd at the awards event to indicate whether they had worked with Moffitt on their project’s pro formas, and a very large number of hands were raised.

Congratulations again to Don Moffitt for having his work recognized with the 2025 Cooperative Champion Award!

When his colleagues in Columinate applauded the award, Don commented: “Thanks, all of you. There’s something like 70 groups working on creating new co-ops! The start-up community is so vibrant, so committed, that working with all of them is fun and rewarding. Up & Coming, for those of you unfamiliar with it, gathers many of these groups and people each year for workshops and community-building. It’s an amazing meeting of talented and caring people using their own time to better their communities.”