Kindred invests in socially-trading organisations to grow their impact in Liverpool City Region. We do this through:
Our work helps grow the impact of the social economy in Liverpool City Region to create a kinder, fairer economy. And we report back on that every year, so you can read our most recent impact report here.
We advocate for the devolution of money and decentralisation of decision making. Decisions about money – and where it’s spent – should take place in regional and local communities, driven by local insights and lived experience.
The last 30 years of investment and regeneration strategies has only increased the gaps between ‘left behind’ communities and the rest. Kindred offers something different; a different view of the economy, investing in local people and their ideas and lived experience.
Kindred was designed by our first 150 members to support the needs of entrepreneurs within our diverse communities. We are member-led, guided by STOs’ priorities.
So far, Kindred has invested £3m in 55 organisations. Between them, they have created over 100 new jobs, levered a further £16.4m of investment and delivered £35.9 of economic and social impact. In 2024 alone, they provided direct support to 421,735 people.
of our money and support goes to women-led social traders
of our money and support goes to underinvested communities – either in geographical places, or who have a specific focus, like the environment, or young people
of money and support goes to Black-led social traders
Investing in local communities creates clusters of social innovation and peer-led support that show all the signs of industry sector clusters in terms of accelerated growth, innovation and impact.
Five years of Kindred has shown us how the social economy here is growing. Currently, it represents 10% of our economy – our collective ambition is to grow that to 20%.
As a result, we’re working with a consortium of regional and national partners to deliver a Social Investment Pathfinder to scale investment from £5m to £50m, to accelerate the impact that social traders have demonstrated is possible.
