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.
Social impact themes
Each generation of Collington women has found a way to use their skills and experience for social impact in a manner appropriate to the time.
Today those social impacts are captured in the five high-level impact themes most critical to achieving social justice: better health, gender equality, social inclusion, quality education, and economic development.
The foundation also addresses the inter-dependent threat of the climate crisis as it works with its partners to secure a socially just transition to a net zero world.
Read the foundation brochure
How the foundation works
The 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.
In short, we want to make philanthropy more impactful. We will deploy philanthropic funding from a range of donors and grantors who share our values to:
- deliver research, engagement and advocacy to promote strategies and solutions that enable grant funders to catalyse social impact at scale
- commission advisers to build investment readiness and develop blended finance impact investment solutions to attract impact investment
- source grant funding for blended finance impact investment vehicles to catalyse the sustainable growth of impact-led enterprises.
We envisage this work contributing to the movement of blended finance into mainstream capital markets, and the material acceleration of key socially focussed impact themes.
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.
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.