People have pooled money together for more than 5000 years.
Today, savings clubs are used by communities all over the world. Some groups pay into a shared pool every week or month and give the total to one person at a time (rotation); others keep building the pool for when someone needs it (accumulation).
There is a name for it in every language:
Do you know another name? Tell us on Whatsapp.
In the UK, Didlum clubs used to be common among working class communities. During the Windrush period, half a million people were brought to the UK to work from the Caribbean, but many racist banks and businesses refused to serve them; pardna became a lifeline for families to afford homes, cars and businesses. Many of the millions of slaves that were trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean and Americas by the British and others had already used pardna to buy their freedom.
Sharing is a good idea. It enables common projects, brings individuals out of hardship and ties communities together. That’s why savings clubs appear again and again - even under the most difficult circumstances.
The Banker Ladies
Studies show that women are more likely to run and use savings clubs than men. Caroline Shenaz Hossein has researched these ‘Banker Ladies’ and produced a short documentary.
It is a fact that the first companies, banks, building societies and cooperatives all came from people putting money and resources together to do something bigger than they could do alone.
Why doesn’t everyone do it?
The first banks were groups of wealthy men who shared the gains of their lending business. Today, we’d call that a credit union. But as more people moved into cities, and money became more important, ordinary people wanted to put their wages somewhere safe. The wealthy bankers didn’t want to share the profits of the business with everyone so they distinguished between shareholders and customers.
The practice of dividing between insiders and outsiders appears throughout history. And so does resistance to it.
In many societies, profiting too much at the expense of others or hiding away your private gain is seen as stealing from the community. In fact, many religions used to prohibit charging interest and some still do because of the effect it has on people, driving inequality and separation.
But in other places, it became common to think of property as private, and to accept that in 2020 it would take an Amazon warehouse worker 8 weeks to earn as much money as CEO Jeff Bezos makes in a single second.
It has never been more important to change how we do things.
The culture of searching for the largest profit on personal investments instead of investing in community is driving inequality and harming our planet and climate.
This everyone-for-themselves mindset works best for the giant corporations that give the largest rewards to their shareholders - the insiders. Today, these are oil companies, weapons manufacturers, technology corporations and other big businesses.
While a wealthy few get even richer, the potential of so many human beings - the outsiders - is diminished by unequal opportunities, and our ability to withstand crises together is reduced. By saving with your community, you create equal opportunities through access to interest free money.
We have the power to change the situation if we work together.
Ethical. Traditional. Radical.
Communities saving = saving communities
Kin was founded to change our financial culture by enabling easy, safe, online social saving clubs. If individuals can access money from their communities, why would they need high interest loans?
If more people put community first, they’ll start to see those who only want to profit no matter the social and environmental cost for what they truly are. That’s when a culture begins to change.
Kin is a cooperative, which means that everyone that uses and works for Kin is an equal member. Each member has a democratic vote in the general assembly, the body that makes all the important decisions about the organisation. There are no outsiders involved. And Kin is not-for-profit, which means no money goes to a group of insiders.
Kin is not a bank or credit union for two reasons. First, banks and credit unions are in the lending business - Kin doesn’t lend money, Kin enables mutual aid between autonomous groups. Second, we want to help build relationships between people, not between individuals and Kin.
When you contribute to your group, the money belongs to your group, not to Kin and not to you. That’s how we build trust. Because we really do need each other.
Invest in the people who will pick you up.