What if a nonprofit wrote a report and city policy actually changed as a result?

Truth is, reports by nonprofits that advocate policy changes are written all the time, but most, even when full of good policy ideas, gather electronic dust.

AURORA, Colo. — Cassie Larimer is the assistant director of Happy Ladybug Early Learning, a child care center and preschool tucked into a one-story brick building in this city east of Denver. But her new business cards, emblazoned with a cheery ladybug logo, just say “owner.”

Larimer isn’t technically an owner — yet. The new business cards reflect the ambitions of the center’s cofounders, Elvan Goksu and Umit Kaya, who hope to turn Happy Ladybug into a worker-owned cooperative — meaning that the center’s 13 staff members would hold shares in the business and help manage it.