A cooperative is a registered association of persons who voluntarily join together to achieve common social, economic, and cultural goals. Cooperatives are organized to pursue various purposes, including encouraging thrift and savings, providing credit, promoting systematic production and marketing, and developing expertise among members. The primary objective of all cooperatives is to improve members' quality of life by providing goods and services to increase income and purchasing power, optimize social and economic benefits, teach efficient ways of working together, and allow less privileged groups to increase their wealth.