Social impact goals
The Harriet Collington Foundation, at the heart of Collington Capital, has been established to further the legacy of Olivia’s great grandmother Harriet Collington, her sister Catherine Arnott, and successive generations of remarkable Collington women who were pioneers in their respective fields.
Each generation of Collington women found a way to use their skills and experience for social impact in a manner appropriate to their time. Today those social impacts are captured in the five impact goals most critical to social justice: poverty alleviation, better health, inclusive education, women’s empowerment and economic development.
Our inspiration
The foundation is inspired by the work of Olivia’s great grandmother, Harriet Collington, who was actively engaged in social work associated with her husband’s medical practice and one of the first generation of women to be appointed a Justice of the Peace.
Along with her sister, Catherine Arnott, one of the first women to qualify as a doctor, Harriet was a well-known and active member of the early 20th century movement for women’s economic, social and political empowerment.
Harriet’s daughter-in-law Dorothy Collington was awarded an MBE for her social work in Coventry during and after the second world war and her grand-daughter Catherine Collington was a school mistress dedicated to advancing the social mobility of girls through education. This lineage of Collington women continues with Olivia who has had a long and illustrious career in financial services.
Read the foundation brochure
How the foundation works
The Harriet Collington Foundation is a not-for-profit company facilitating the development and funding of blended finance impact investment vehicles. It works today with aligned and ambitious partners towards a vision of philanthropic funding catalysing flows of new impact investment to transform the delivery of social impact at scale in the UK and internationally.
The foundation’s medium-term goal is to mobilise US$150mn of catalytic philanthropic funding over five years.
The foundation will deploy philanthropic funding from a range of donors and grantors who share our vision to deliver:
- research, engagement and advocacy to promote strategies and solutions that enable grant funders to catalyse impact investment into impact-led enterprises
- ambitious blended finance impact solutions aligned with the impact goals of philanthropic funders to leverage grant funding and deliver social impact at scale
- grant funding for blended finance impact investment propositions to catalyse investment and drive the sustainable growth of impact-led enterprises
The foundation contributes to the movement of blended finance into mainstream capital markets, and the material acceleration of key socially focused impact goals.
The foundation’s focus is on the impact goals most critical to achieving social justice: poverty alleviation, better health, inclusive education, women’s empowerment and economic development. The foundation also addresses the inter-dependent threat of the climate crisis with an additional focus on climate solutions which build the resilience of the most vulnerable.
We work with aligned and ambitious partners towards a vision of philanthropic funding catalysing flows of new impact investment to transform the delivery of social impact at scale in the UK and internationally.