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Two summers ago, tech co-op Animorph’s members were running out of both cash and morale. Potentially in big trouble while waiting to find out if they’d been successful in shortlisting for £1m of innovation competition funding, they needed cash, and fast.

Szczepan from Animorph remembers feeling hung out to dry by mainstream sources of finance, and even by the co-op institutions. “We were starting to hallucinate that we’d made a crazy mistake, and were losing hope. We’re Solidfund members, so I ran it by a couple of people then made a request for help in the members' Loomio forum. Two weeks later, we had the £6,000 we needed to survive the crisis. I can hardly express how that simple, no-strings expression of worker co-op love helped renew our energy and belief.”

Democratic workers' control is about creating decent jobs and workplaces - and a crucial part of the wider movement to halt the social, economic and environmental devastation being inflicted by private capital on communities everywhere.

The more we're able to grow and strengthen networks of worker cooperatives, the more we can design and provide goods and services in a way that responds to people's real needs and aspirations, instead of the drive for profit.

A tall order? Maybe. Is there an alternative? We don't think so. Solidfund may be a small piece of the jigsaw, but there are plans to do more.

In 2025, the fund gave money to support seven projects, events and formations. Here’s just one example of how a small amount of money made a difference - in this case, helping grow our tribe and spread the word.

Our members at Cooperation Town asked for £1,000 to promote and organise a grass-roots ‘Cooperation Day’ festival on the spectacular roof garden at their hub in Camden, bringing together experienced cooperators and the co-op curious from London and further away to celebrate, learn and discuss co-op strategies for working class control and ownership. In the blistering heat of July 13th, a brilliant session on ‘Controlling work’ was put on by Kitty’s Launderette, Principle Six, Cooperation Town and Nanny Solidarity Network.

Bryn Davies and Anthony Scott from Kitty's Launderette in Liverpool are being sponsored by Solidfund to go on the next Barefoot co-op adviser training, along with Sam Nordland from our sister organisation workers.coop

The Barefoot training aims to equip those who already have experience of founding or working in a primary co-op, with the skills to become the worker co-op organisers and advisors of the future.

For the first time, we made an open call to members to propose people they thought we should back to go on the programme.

Thanks to our subscribers, this year's Worker Co-op Weekend in Derbyshire was able - for the first time in eleven years - to provide professional childcare and put on a programme of kids' activities over two days. The effect on the whole event was transformative.

Solidfund agreed £2,000 to fully fund two places for worker cooperators on the Barefoot programme, to give them grounding and training to become co-op organisers and business advisors themselves. The programme takes on 15 people in each cohort, and will run for six months starting in September 2025.

Solidfund members approved a £10,000 distribution to Hempen, a worker cooperative based in Oxfordshire whose mission is to grow and cultivate UK based organic hemp "for the health of the people, rural communities and the land."

Solidfund agreed to donate £4,000 to the Gaza Crisis Fund set up by Yalla, a transnational worker co-op based in Palestine. During the emergency and invasion, the co-op's focus shifted from delivering projects to supporting worker members surviving in refuge, and helping rebuild their lives when the war ends.

SF members voted to subscribe €5,000 for co-op shares in GFF (Ex-GKN for Future) shares, to support workers at the former GKN automotive drivetrain factory near Florence to take control and convert the plant to socially useful production.

Independent news channel The Canary, which converted to a worker co-op last year, is using a £3,000 distribution from Solidfund to buy time to navigate a tricky transition from an advertising-based to supporter subscription revenue model.

Fund members voted £2,775 to update and secure Kate Whittle's classic guide on practical governance in cooperatives, 'From Conflict to Cooperation'. Originally published in print only, it has been comprehensively revised.

Members debated and approved a £5,000 distribution to MyCool Class, to help with the growing pains of recruiting new teachers and students to the world's first international platform learning workers' co-op.