Despite the rise of social networking, close friendship is going the way of the dinosaurs: extinct.

The average size of our close friendship circles is shrinking and as many as 1 in 4 of us have no close friends at all.

So in an era where we are more connected than ever before, why do we have less close people? With increased mobility, how to do we get connected in new cities? In a radically changed 'village', how do we make sure parenthood strengthens our social connections instead of fraying them?

Kitestring is Melbourne-based human-centred design project dedicated to answering these questions and more, for humans and dinosaurs alike.

We've spent over a year on a design-research deep-dive, interviewing people from many walks of life and reading everything we could get our hands on. Out of this we've produced a report (a small book, really) summarising our insights so far. You can view our (nearly final) draft at http://bit.ly/2o9g3jM

We are now at the stage of printing and launching this report. We will distribute the PDF and upload stories to our website, but having a high-quality hardcopy is critical to recruiting partners for the next phase: trying things out.

I'm aware you don't like fund marketing, so rest assured spreading the report is more: it's core to the impact we've want to create. Friends who've read it have already gone and tried new things in their lives.

I also hear you like projects that other people won't fund, so you'll love us. Most funders want you to start with an idea (we started with a question) or do academic research (we took an action-focused design research approach).

So up until now we've poured our own time and money into this passion project.

Unfortunately the quote we just got for printing has us digging so deep into our pockets that we're coming out with lint. Hence this awesome opportunity for you folks to help us avoid our own extinction event and get the project to the next stage.