About Sonoma County GO LOCAL

Sonoma County GO LOCAL specializes in Economic Development Marketing

Sonoma County GO LOCAL Cooperative is a community alliance of locally-owned, independent businesses and organizations, providing economic development marketing for its members. Business and organization members work together using shared brand promotion, targeted advertising, and a Rewards Program to increase sales, which in turn strengthens our local economy.

GO LOCAL's mission is to shift consumer and commercial purchasing to locally owned, independent businesses to lift our local economy & quality of life.

Requirements and Benefits of Membership

Businesses and Organizations are eligible to become members of GO LOCAL. Requirements for membership are:

Business is privately held (not publicly traded).
50% or greater of the business owners live in Sonoma County.
Business corporate headquarters are in Sonoma County.
Business makes independent decisions regarding the name and look of the business, as well as all business purchasing practices and distribution.
Business pays all its own rent, marketing expenses and other expenses.

If you meet all of the above qualifications, we welcome you to become a GO LOCAL business member.

If you could not check one or more boxes, we encourage you to participate as a local supporter....see below!

Participation as a GO LOCAL Supporter

We have a growing number of businesses that are not headquartered in Sonoma County (like Recology, Revive Drinks, KM Herbals, and more), but they support the GO LOCAL mission and still want to participate.

You can! Learn more here.

Join as a member or supporter here.

MADE LOCAL Magazine and Marketing

GO LOCAL pioneered the groundbreaking work of helping local growers and producers increase market share through locally owned retailers in Sonoma County.

Working with the Sonoma County Food System Alliance and other organizations, GO LOCAL created the North Bay Made Local brand that spans Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties.

MADE LOCAL Magazine brings to life the stories of our local food system initiatives through the voices of people doing the work. It's distributed only through local food establishments and features only locally owned businesses. Published bi-monthly and online at Made Local Magazine.

Management By Responsibility as Our Organizational Culture

One of GO LOCAL's core objectives is to create a organizational culture based upon cooperation and responsibility. To that end we have formed a management team consisting of four team members and of eleven members board. We work closely to create economic development programs that exemplify innovation in bringing value to our community.

Management by Responsibility (MBR) was developed by Michael Durst in the early 1980's based on the idea that responsibility begins with an individual and percolates within an organization as each person matures through an ever expanding understanding and practice of personal responsibility. This expansion and unification of responsibility among the members catapults the organization to greater adoption of organizational responsibility to other stakeholders. This is a 21st century imperative to take responsibility personally, economically, socially and politically.

A corollary to MBR is our cooperative structure and how our management team makes and enacts decisions. The industrial revolution brought about various hierarchal management structures. Those systems focused authority on a single authority figure; the later stage of this being what we've seen in most recent years as the leader as "superhero". Hierarchal systems and structures aren't necessary when a number of responsible people gather and organize. GoLocal is structured as a heterarchy organization, i.e. multiple-rule. We feel this is in keeping with the fact that we are a cooperative. As a team and board we are committed to not only create innovative programs, but to exemplify innovation in our management and governance practice as well.

Please feel free to inquire about these practices.