Livability

Livability

Livability was founded in 1844 as The Shaftesbury Society by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, a prominent Victorian social reformer who championed factory acts and mental health care reform. The modern entity emerged from a 2007 merger between The Shaftesbury Society and John Grooms, consolidating two centuries-old charitable lineages into a single operational foundation headquartered in London. Its constitutional links to the Shaftesbury family persist through Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl, who serves as Vice-Patron alongside HRH Princess Anne as Patron. Livability operates as a direct service provider rather than a grant-making trust, deploying its resources into residential care homes, specialist colleges, and community day services for disabled adults. The foundation's property portfolio includes Livability Brookside House in Edgware, a care home for adults with physical disabilities, and Livability Millie College in Dorset, a specialist further education college set on a 350-acre site. Beyond real estate, Livability maintains dedicated Financial Investment and Social Investment Portfolios, though specific allocations by asset class are not publicly itemized. The charity is ranked among the UK's 250 largest charities by income, appearing on the Charity Finance 250 Index. CEO Sally Chivers oversees daily operations, reporting to a Board of Trustees chaired by Tom O'Connor. The organization is also a Disability Confident Employer accredited by the UK Government, signaling a commitment to inclusive hiring practices. In its most recent filed accounts, Livability reported consolidated income exceeding £40 million, with the majority derived from statutory contracts for care and education services alongside charitable fundraising. Livability's structural differentiator lies in owning and operating the physical assets that deliver its mission — a care home portfolio, a college campus, and a commercial office at North Greenwich — rather than acting as a conduit for programmatic grants. This operational model aligns the foundation's balance sheet directly with long-term service delivery, making revenue resilience a function of property stewardship and statutory commissioning relationships rather than annual fundraising cycles.