Background and objectives: Iran is a country with different types of geographical, environmental and demographic conditions which is situated in a disaster- prone area in the world. In some cases, these disasters were catastrophic and they have resulted in emergency conditions; hence, they may slow down the development process.

Co-operative societies are mostly structured and established by people all over the world, but they are working under supervision of governments and in some cases, they are organized by governmental investments.  There are a lot of experiences about the role of cooperatives in reduction of needs and requirements after catastrophic disasters. Therefore, the operational potentials of these cooperatives could be used in reduction of the variety of vulnerabilities before disasters. Different departments of these cooperatives could also be used in recovery process after disasters.

Method: This paper reviews the literature related to the issues and needs of communities after disasters in crisis management as a science and the lessons learned from using cooperatives in previous disasters in Iran and some other countries.  In this way, relying on Content Analysis Method and reviewing the most repeated cases linking to the needs of post-disaster needs and services by different cooperatives, effective cooperatives in different context will be introduced.

Findings: This study provides a structure in how to use cooperatives' potentials to cover needs and consequences of a community faced with a disaster.

Conclusion: Finally the process of literature reviewing in disaster management and studying of different countries’ experiences could be lead to answer these as the main questions: When and How to employ the potential of cooperatives in emergency conditions.