Big Bend Co-op gives back to community through nonprofit organization

Short-time Ritzville residents may notice regular news articles reporting that “Caring Neighbors” has donated monies to various groups. It would be easy to assume that “Caring Neighbors” refers to a small local charitable group—but as it turns out, that assumption is extremely minimized as to the nature and impact of Caring Neighbors.

To start at the beginning, one must travel back to our rural area in the 1930s, when there was no electric service available for farmers and residents of the region. A group of farmers organized a “Big Bend Electric Cooperative,” successfully obtained a 100 percent loan from the Rural Electrification Administration (an agency of the Department of Agriculture), and began building a network of lines.

In 1940, this effort came on-line and residents began to enjoy the benefits of electric power. By way of returning to a yesteryear mentality—the cost to join the Cooperative in the beginning was a $5 membership fee for each account. And the monthly electricity use averaged about 150 kilowatt-hours. Today, the average monthly electrical use of Big Bend Cooperative members has grown to over 1,850 kWh.

Those who are familiar with Washington state’s utilities know that the WUTC (Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission) has regulatory control over most utilities in the state as to rates, service area, vehicle and personnel safety, and other related issues. Interestingly, the Cooperative is not subject to the UTC in any way. Big Bend is completely controlled by its Board of Directors, who are accountable to the owners of the company: the members. Among other benefits of such a business model is local control based on local recognition of what’s best for both them as well as “their” electricity provider.

When asked about control of service area, CEO Yvette Armstrong explained that the Cooperative is able to negotiate in situations where conflict may occur, giving an example where the Cooperative may have lines adjacent to a potential customer who is in another provider’s service area. The ability to negotiate a solution without having to stay within a fixed (UTC-mandated) service area allows both providers to solve such a situation between themselves to the benefit of both. She indicated that numerous such agreements are in place—not the least of which is in Ritzville.

That sort of flexibility and local control give a cooperative like Big Bend the ability to state in their member information handout: “As one of the Cooperative’s member-owners, you not only get excellent service at the lowest possible cost, you also share in any Cooperative margins” by way of “capital credits.“ The margins are allocated each year to each member, based on the amount of electricity used.

Big Bend has refunded capital credits to members for 42 consecutive years, returning $40.9 million during that time. The Journal received advance word that this year the Co-op Board of Trustees has approved a refund of $2.1 million, mailed to consumers who purchased power from the Cooperative during the years of 1999, 2000, and 2017.

Big Bend Electric Co-op provides service to rural parts of Adams and Franklin Counties, plus service to the edges of some towns. They cover an area of about 25,000 square miles with some 9,283 meters in place, served by 2,404 miles of line. Big Bend gets the majority of its power from the Bonneville Power Administration. About 60 percent of the electricity used by Big Bend members is for agricultural services. The remaining 40 percent serves residential and business accounts. A company handout states that 2017 sales exceeded $33 million. The Co-op paid $1.62 million in taxes that year.

Cooperatives are by no means limited to our area; nor are they a new approach to business. In fact cooperatives are regularly found in the eastern part of the United States, where they began use as a business model. And today there are over 1,000 electric cooperatives in the country. A cooperative is a member-owned business, operated for the benefit of the members and functions as a nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) tax exemption. Cooperatives adhere to seven principles:

-Voluntary and open membership

-Democratic member control

-Members economic participation

-Autonomy and independence

-Education, training and information

-Cooperation among cooperatives

-Concern for community

It’s that last principle which gave birth to “Caring Neighbors” when in August of 2001, Jim Johnson guided Big Bend Electric Cooperative to establish such a program. Caring Neighbors is a separate nonprofit organization which is operated under the control of a five-member Board of Trustees, separate from control by the Big Bend Board. Members of the Caring Neighbors Board is not necessarily from the Cooperative membership, although some of the Board are Co-op members and others are past members.

Caring Neighbors provides charitable contributions to nonprofit organizations—other nonprofit groups, municipalities, schools, emergency service organizations and community improvement groups. As a fascinating example of how a large number of small contributions can morph into a large fund from which to distribute, Caring Neighbors obtains its funding from Cooperative members in a rather unique manner. Caring Neighbors participants have their electric bills rounded up to the nearest dollar.

The difference between this rounded amount and the actual bill amount is withheld to Caring Neighbors. Amazingly, the amount of funds generated from an individual account averages $6.00 per year. The Big Bend Cooperative tracks how much is forwarded and reports to Co-op members on their statements. Since Caring Neighbors is also a 501(c)(3) operation, Co-op members who participate in this manner are able to deduct the contribution to Caring Neighbors.

Meanwhile, the Caring Neighbors Board evaluates requests for monetary help from potential recipients to decide how funds should be dispersed. And returning to opening comments of this article, it is the public who then sees photos of pleased recipients of Caring Neighbors funds in the local paper. In conversation, CEO Armstrong responded to a question over what seems like a unique manner to generate funds, saying it is a method used by many other nonprofit organizations.

As effective as Caring Neighbors is, it is not the only phase of Big Bend’s community involvement. The Cooperative awards three four-year college scholarships worth $500 each year to graduating seniors. The awards are based on a grade point average (2.5 or better), an essay on a given topic, and the applicants school, community , and volunteer activities. Judging is done by a three-member committee of industry professionals who are not affiliated with Big Bend. Scholarship awards are presented at the Cooperative’s annual meeting of members, held each year in February or March.