Social cooperatives aimed at work integration of people at risk of social exclusion for many years are an important instrument of labor market policy in many countries. Functioning of Polish social cooperatives has much shorter, only several years’ history. The possibility of supporting the development process of these entities depends on the knowledge about conditions of their functioning. The first comprehensive study on the condition and the operations of social cooperatives in Poland — “Monitoring of social cooperatives 2010” — was carried out in 2011. This nationwide study fills a significant lack of information about the situation of the environment of the social cooperatives. This paper presents specificity and selected results of this survey and discusses the key dimensions of the national situation of social cooperatives, and so characterizes the organizational structure, spheres of activity, a financial standing, a scope and forms of support enjoyed by cooperatives and evaluation of legal solutions. The material allows not only to evaluate the condition of the Polish social cooperatives, but also makes it possible to diagnose their needs.