What we do

Kindred is a community. We share the expertise and experiences of our members to support the growth of the socially-trading community across Liverpool City Region. And we also help that growth by supporting STOs (socially-trading organisations) with money.

Download ‘What is Kindred?’ here, if you’d like to find out more…

If you’re new to Kindred, here’s a quick re-cap on our story so far:

  • The idea for Kindred was born from the delivery experience of local STOs, supported by research by the Heseltine Institute and Seebohm Hill
  • In September 2019, we got together a community reference group of around 20 members of the STO community, to begin to develop plans. Kindred is designed by our community, for our community. Forever
  • Our ambition is to grow the impact of the social economy across Liverpool City Region, by supporting investment in STOs, facilitating peer-to-peer support and demonstrating the value of collaboration over competition
  • Working with Power to Change we made the case and mayor Steve Rotheram first committed to supporting our ambition in October 2019
  • Since January 2020, more than 150 STOs from across LCR’s six boroughs have contributed to Kindred’s design
  • April 2020 – and lockdown – threw us into crisis management mode. We stepped in to see how we could support STOs through the pandemic and they proved resilient and flexible
  • As a result of that work, we’ve become a part of a national and global movement, committed to a new, fairer, kinder economy
  • Now, £6,500,000 has been committed to Kindred over the first seven years, by LCR Combined Authority and Power to Change
  • The first £2m of that money was invested in early 2021 in our ‘pilot’ round and we’ve invested another £1m since then. We’re now open for 2024’s socially-trading organisations
  • So far, Kindred has invested 49%* of the money spent in women-led businesses, alongside another 11% in businesses led by both men and women. That’s 60% directly into businesses with women at the top. 
  • And 22% of Kindred’s money has gone to Black-led STOs – with a target of 25% – of whom half are women. That’s because women-led and Black-led businesses are underserved by traditional social investment – and we want to change that.

    * Investment by percentage of investees