FAQs

If you have difficulty with the FAQ links below, you can also view the FAQs here.

Can't find the answer to your question? Get in touch. WhatsApp Kin (faster) or Contact Kin

FAQ Categories

Getting started

Starting a group

Starting a new group is easy!

Log in: then click "create group".
Choose a name: give your group a name your commuity will recognise.
Add a description: describe the purpose of the group.
Share your group: tell your friends to become a member of Kin Cooperative.
Admins: The person who creates a group is the first group admin. You can make others admin by contacting the Kin team.
Contribute: Start building up your common fund!

How much does it cost?

Just £1.00 per month!

Kin Cooperative is a not-for-profit but we need to cover our operating costs to keep the service available. That means we are asking a small administrative fee from individuals of just £1.00 per month. If you are able to afford more, please contribute more.

Open membership. We believe in making membership accessible. If £1 per month isa financial strain, or you are affiliated with one of our partners, please contact the Kin team and we will find a solution.

How do I pay my membership?

Log in and click the "Set Up Recurring Donation" button on your member home page.
Make sure next to Kin Group is "Kin Members".
Select the amount you can contribute each month (minimum £1).
Press contribute and follow the instructions on the next page to set up a standing order to Kin Cooperative Limited.
You are now a Kin Cooperative member!

Adding Kin Cooperative as a payee

Go to your banking app
Navigate to your payments or account page
Select "add a new payee" or "save as payee" after making your first payment to Kin Cooperative.
Once added, it's easy to select Kin Cooperative from your payee list

Kin's accounts are held by The Cooperative Bank.

If you have any issues, please contact your account provider.

Kin Groups

5 Common Kinds Of Kin Group

Traditional Rotating Fund - communities all around the world use rotating funds. Every week or month everyone in the group contributes to the common pot and every week or month one person takes the whole pot. This continues until everyone has received and put in the same amount. The allocation of the pot can be decided by lottery or negotiation. Rotating funds enable groups to save for amounts that can be difficult to reach individually.
Food Cooperative - members pay a weekly amount to buy food in bulk together. A great way to save on supermarket prices and bring your community together. See our partner Cooperation Town for more information.
Community Purchase - you may be working with your neighbours, friends or family to purchase something together or to support a common cause. Kin groups can be a way for you to manage contributions and keep track of your goal. Think of putting a new roof on the community centre or putting solar panels on the local car park and splitting the benefit!
Solidarity Fund - why not set up a fund for your community just in case someone needs it. If they do, they may contribute back and keep contributing to keep the fund growing. One day it could enable you as a community to purchase something together.
Your Idea - the focus is your community. There are thousands of reasons to engage in financial mutual aid. You can also use a kin group for more than one thing at the same time. Kin allows you to track how much everyone in your group has contributed and received so you can pause one use to help someone who is having a hard time and then get right back to the first use.

Recurring Contributions

It's easy to set up a weekly or monthly contribution. This means that if you know you are always paying in the same amount, you don't need to login to Kin all the time. Each week or month your contribution will be automatically created on Kin.

Making a recurring contribution:

Go to your group page.
Select "Recurring Contribution"
Follow the instructions to set up a standing order on banking app or online bank.
Every time we receive funds, we will email you to confirm your contribution has been received.

Cancellation or Modification

To cancel or change the amount of a recurring contribution please WhatsApp Kin (faster) or contact Kin.

Are the group funds safe?

Groups are autonomous. This means it is important that you trust the people in your group and especially your admin who is responsible for approving new members and withdrawals.

Kin Cooperative is not responsible for the behaviour of people in your group. However, if a member breaks Kin Cooperative's rules or code of conduct, they will have their membership suspended or terminated. If you are worried about anyone in your group or you are unclear about how your group should work financially, you should contact the Kin Cooperative team immediately.

Make a group agreement

Having a group agreement can increase trust and prevent against issues by making it clear that it doesn't benefit anyone to break the rules. In the UK, a written or even spoken agreement can be used as evidence in a civil court.

Visit the group agreement page now.

Group agreements

Kin Cooperative is not responsible for the behaviour of people in your group. However, if a member breaks Kin Cooperative's rules or code of conduct, they will have their membership suspended or terminated. If you are worried about anyone in your group or you are unclear about how your group should work financially, you should contact the Kin Cooperative team immediately.

Make a group agreement

Example questions and answers

Here are some of the most important questions you might want to answer in your group agreement:

What happens if you are unable to contribute?
Example answer: if you are unable to contribute within 14 days of the regular date, you must notify the group. If you fail to contribute without notifying the group, then you may be asked to settle the balance and to leave the group immediately and/or be expected to make an extra 10% payment.
When can you leave the group?
Example answer: you cannot leave the group if you have received more than you have contributed except under special circumstances and only then by resolution of 75% of the whole group.
Who can join the group?
Example answer: if a new person wishes to join the group, it must be agreed by everyone even if they are taking the place of a group member who is leaving. Alternative answer: the admin approves new members and guarantees their trustworthiness.
You may also want to specify:
1. Contribution amounts;
2. Contribution schedules;
3. How decisions are made about money requests;
4. How group agreements and other rules are made or changed.

A group agreement can be the difference between a happy community and a broken one

Having trouble with your group or thinking about your group agreement? WhatsApp Kin (faster) or contact Kin for support.

Prohibited uses

Kin has been developed for financial mutual aid - everyone benefitting by working together.

That means there are things you cannot use Kin for including but not limited to:

You cannot use Kin to fund anything illegal.
You cannot use Kin for individual private profit.
You cannot use Kin for purposes of transacting business, trade, for supply of a service or anything liable for taxation as income or capital gain.
You cannot attempt to coerce someone to use Kin or contribute more, more often or request money in smaller amounts or less often against their will.
Admins cannot use their power to approve or deny requests for money for any reasons other than for the agreed, sustainable and equitable operation of the group.

Anyone may report a group or member to your Kin Cooperative Team at any time.

Any breach of these rules or any other Kin policy or the term of service may result in suspension of services or expulsion without prior notice.

See Kin Cooperative's full code of conduct for more information.

Do you need to contribute to receive money?

No.

Kin is not a crowdfunder or a way for an individual to raise money for a private need but you can set up a group because you need something right now and a lot of traditional rotating funds begin this way.

Remember Kin Cooperative is for financial mutual aid, that means it should benefit everyone in your group fairly over time. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to contact the team by email or whatsapp.

Kin Cooperative - about, membership & participation

The Story and the Vision

When Rob met B.

Kin was inspired by traditional money pools used by communities across the United Kingdom with different names including pardna, hagbad, menage, susu and committee. B, one of the founders of Kin, was able to afford a law degree thanks to all her "aunties" putting together a hagbad. She's now a law professor and her success is her community's success and all her aunties benefitted by the same amount. It was during the Covid19 pandemic; Rob and B were giving out free food to the community when B told Rob her story.

Today, inequality is soaring in the UK. One of the wealthiest countries in the world has more than 4 million children living in poverty (JRF Report 2025). Annual investments in fossil fuels continues to rise, despite scientists' warnings and the increasing frequency of environmental catastrophes. And this isn't the half of it.

Testing the idea

In December 2023, 100 people gathered in East London to hear the idea that is now Kin Cooperative. We decided to change our lives and build a cooperative that day because we all agreed that we need to change our financial system and this idea just might work.

Our vision is for everyone to use kin groups to support their communities and receive support. That's what community is. It takes trust and not a little bit of work.

Imagine all the different projects and changes to people's lives having just a little bit more money available for when you need it and without interest or the risk of damaging your credit score. And every success won't just belong to one person but their whole community. It's not long before we start seeing how much we owe to each other and how much we all benefit by sharing and holding things in common. This could have a profound effect and change how we think about money and each other.

Kin is not alone

Kin Cooperative is part of a broader project to support socially owned businesses, fund community renewable energy and safeguard community ssets against private ownership.

Meet The Team

Many many people have volunteered time to help Kin get to where it is.

Kin Cooperative employs two paid members, and engages freelancers for design, digital media and strategy support.

Governance

As a cooperative, Kin is owned and run by its members.

Members: everyone who uses the kin platform and every worker and or volunteer who contributes labour to keep the organisation running. Everyone must purchase a £1 share to be a co-owner of the cooperative.

Decisions: every member gets a single vote in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and on all major issues. On all decisions, the votes of the platform users count for 50% and the votes of the platform workers (including volunteers) count for 50%. That means if we have 50,000 people using the platform and only 20 workers, the workers are still listened to and important (without them, there's no cooperative).

Management: a Board of 50/50 workers and users will be elected by all the members at the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) to oversee the day to day work of the cooperative. The board hires or delegates the management team, who manage the work. The Board can also delegate sub-committees and the members can also create committees outside of the delegation of the board. Ultimately the Board is responsible to the members.

Rules & Policies

How do I take part?

As a member of the cooperative, you have a vote in the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Members will receive notice of the meeting which will happen online.

In the meantime, you can submit ideas, proposals or resolutions for the board to look at and they will!

How is Kin Cooperative's money spent?

Not for profit means the money that Kin receives doesn't go to any member or shareholder as interest on shares or as a dividend or a bonus. All surplus generated from your contributions to Kin and any grants received is spent on maintaining, improving and growing Kin andt he finances of the cooperative will be reviewed by the members at the General Meeting each year.

Money is spent on:

Worker wages
Servers and other essential costs
Contractors for specific areas of support
Public events to meet and engage new individuals, communities and potential partners
Marketing
Community Ambassador Program

We will always choose local, cooperative and sustainable options where available and reasonable.

Security

Making contributions and requesting money (security)

Kin is as safe as paying a friend directly and safer than any website that stores your card details (because we don't!).

Contributions: Kin asks that you make payments directly from your bank account to the Kin Cooperative bank account. This means that we NEVER need to store your card details and we will never ask for them and there are no third party payment processors like Stripe or SagePay that take a fee and can delay refunds if any issues happen.

Requests For Money: Kin makes the payment directly from the Kin Cooperative account to yours. Kin will ask you for your Account Name, six-digit Sort Code and eight-digit Account Number. These numbers can ONLY be used to pay you. If these details were stolen, they could be used to initiate a direct debit, however, all direct debits in the UK are covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee and any fraudulent direct debits would be returned to you. This can also happen if you send your details to a friend. If you see any suspicious direct debits, you should always contact your bank immediately.

Where is the money held and who has access? (security)

Contributions to kin groups are held in the Kin Cooperative bank account. Kin banks with the Co-operative Bank.

Wasn't the Co-operative Bank sold to private owners?
Yes, but! Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Co-operative Bank was bought by private equity but as of January 1st 2025, it has been purchased by Coventry Building Society and will be re-mutualised - that means owned by its members and users and not by private shareholders.

Only a few members of the Kin Cooperative Team have access to the bank account and all contributions and gifts are checked and paid out and double checked manually.

Is my group safe?

It is really important that you trust everyone in your group but especially your group admins. Here are some things to look out for:

If your group admins keep allowing new people to join who you don't know.
If someone in the group or your group admin is requesting that others contribute but they are not contributing or the amounts are large.
If your group admin is repeatedly approving requests for money from people who have not contributed much or at all.

If you are worried, WhatsApp Kin (faster) or contact Kin as soon as possible.

Tax & Benefits

Will it affect my tax?

How will gifts appear on my bank statement? All transfers will appear as coming from Kin Cooperative Limited.
Gifts received from Kin groups are not income, so you do not need to declare it as income tax.

If, however, you are using kin.coop for any prohibited use that would be liable for taxation, you should not be using kin.coop and you may be prosecuted by HMRC.
Can I claim tax relief on contributions to my group? No, only registered UK charitable organisations are eligible for tax relief and gift aid. While Kin is a not-for-profit, it is not possible to claim relief.

Will it affect my benefits?

Like a money gift from a friend, money requests from Kin groups are not income so they do not need to be declared as income. If your benefit advisor is uncertain, you should explain how your group works and that you are contributing equally to the amount you are receiving.

Threshold

However, if funds receives pushes you over your threshold, then it may cause a reduction in your allowance. Make sure you know what your thresholds and allowances are before requesting money.

Support

Helping groups to incorporate

We want to see groups outgrow kin.coop and become bigger and more impactful community-led organisations. We are especially interested to support groups wishing to become cooperatives, community benefit societies or communty trusts.

If you think that your group may be ready to grow, get in touch with us.