The LFC Foundation, the charitable arm of Liverpool Football Club, has unveiled its strategy for the next five years. It aims to support 500,000 people per season by 2030.

At a launch event at Anfield on Wednesday, LFC Foundation CEO Matt Parish unveiled the ambitious plans to significantly increase the reach of the Foundation’s work, both at home and abroad, as they target double figures in terms of the countries they have touch points with.

With the ambitious targets comes the challenge of the Foundation doubling funding to help achieve the goal of supporting over half a million people across the Liverpool City Region and beyond.

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The launch of the new strategy came as the Reds’ official charity revealed it supported over 127,000 people throughout the 2023-24 season, with 18,000 sessions and events across 300 community venues, including 199 schools.

Last season alone it also generated £92m of social value to the Liverpool City Region, taking the total over the last four years to an impressive £284.48m. This includes just under £30m directly into the local economy and a total of £122million in healthcare savings through its health programmes since 2020. Last season for every £1 invested, the LFC Foundation were able to generate a return of £13.70 back into the community.

Almost 60% of LFC Foundation’s participants in the last 12 months were from the 20% most deprived local authority wards in the country, showing just how much it is embedded in the most high-need local communities.

The Foundation has also been a direct funder of a range of projects for children and young people delivered through trusted partner charities and community groups, as well as making direct donations.

Over 19,200 individuals experiencing significant disadvantage have been beneficiaries of gifts or have been supported by external funding over the last 12 months, mainly via the LFC Foundation’s Red Neighbours team, with a total recorded value of £2.5million.

LFC Foundation first started providing independent reporting on its impact for the 2020/21 season, and prides itself on its continued verified and transparent statistics to accurately convey its impact.

Now looking to build on its already substantial community impact, the new strategy outlines the LFC Foundation’s dedication to tackling social inequalities and raising aspirations both here in the Liverpool City Region and internationally.

This will be carried out through the delivery of programmes that have a positive impact on health, learning and employment outcomes in the highest-need communities across the Liverpool City Region, and through impactful partnerships internationally.

“The insights from our latest impact report, alongside the reporting over the last four years, have helped us to shape our new strategy for 2025-2030,” said Parish.

“We know our new strategy is ambitious but our aim is always to grow and continue to improve, so our target is to support over 500,000 by 2030 and be working internationally in ten countries through our impactful partnerships.

“We will deliver this by continuing to develop our own high quality, measurable delivery and by supporting partners to do so both in the Liverpool City Region and internationally.

“We are proud of the growth of the LFC Foundation throughout 2023-24, as well as supporting over 127,000 we have been able to launch new events such as Kip on the Kop, we hosted our most successful Legends fixture to date with a record crowd and we have been recognised externally, including success at the Football Business Awards.

“None of this would be possible without the support of the whole LFC family, the club, the players, the supporters and valued partners. We would like to thank everyone for their support and we look forward to continuing this journey with you as we launch our new and exciting strategy.”

In addition to growing the reach of the Foundation and its work, Parish also spoke on his desire to try and find ways to work collaboratively with the good work that goes on at Everton through their highly-praised Everton In The Community programme, as well as with more clubs in the region.

Parish told the ECHO: “We are competitors on the pitch, but not off it. I think that Everton have always done, and are doing, amazing work. So are other clubs like Tranmere Rovers, Southport and Chester. Even if we scaled up what we did three times, we still wouldn’t meet what we need. Why don’t we try and come together a bit more?

“I’m lucky to have a template of it with the London clubs from when I was at Charlton Athletic. They came together to create something called ‘London United’. They came together to talk about the collective impact and how powerful it would be if they came together, could we attract more funding?

“We already have a working relationship with Everton but it would be great if we could do a little bit more together.”