About Us

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. The idea was five years in the making and we’ve been operating for five years now, too.
• In September 2019, a community reference group of around 20 members of the STO community, began to develop plans that responded to their needs. And, since January 2020, more than 150 STOs from across LCR’s six boroughs have contributed to Kindred’s design
• So we can confirm that 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, from 10% to 20%.
• Power to Change and Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram committed to supporting our ambition in October 2019. Between them, they committed, £6.5m to Kindred over the first seven years.
• As a result of that work, we’ve become a part of a national and global movement, committed to a new, fairer, kinder economy
• 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.
• 25% of Kindred’s money has gone to Black-led STOs – 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.
• And next, we’re looking at increasing the money and support available to STOs in the region by increasing it to £50m via the Liverpool City Region Social Investment Pathfinder.