KHF won the Brian Wilson Philanthropist of the Year 2019 awarded by the Community Foundation for Ireland on 31 January.
Dr. Noelle Spring, Director of KHF, accepted the award along with Chairman of the Board of Trustees, David Kingston.

As Director of the Katharine Howard Foundation I am delighted to accept this award on behalf of the Foundation.
The Katharine Howard Foundation is a small independent Irish grant making Foundation with a small group of very dedicated and visionary trustees and an equally small and committed, creative and dynamic staff team.

The focus of our work throughout the years has been on supporting children and families through strategic grants, specific programmes and a number of initiatives including our recently completed Parenting Support Programme and our current Nurture Programme. We have a particular commitment to providing supports as early as possible – in pregnancy and in early childhood because we now know how important yearly years experiences are for child development, especially the importance of strong attachments and relationship. We aim to influence policy and service delivery to ensure the best outcomes for children and their families.

Working in Partnership with others is central to our work. As a small Foundation with limited funding we have always worked collaboratively with other Foundations and funders including CFI, Atlantic Philanthropies. the Health Service Executive (HSE), Tusla and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) to work in the development and implementation of Programmes that make a real difference to children and families. The Foundation would like to thank all these organisations for their belief in KHF and its work.  CFI has been one of our most important and longstanding collaborative partners to which we are very grateful.
Philanthropy has an important role in supporting the community and voluntary sector and the public sector as its independence and resources can assist these sectors to bring about change. Katharine Howard was very insightful when she established the Foundation in 1979 as she allowed future Trustees the scope to identify the areas that they wished to focus on.

Thank You: This award is a wonderful recognition for our work as a Foundation and we look forward to continuing this work and planning future programmes, initiatives and partnerships in response to current and emerging needs in order to give all children the best possible start in life.

Catherine Keogh, Kerry Group, Corporate Philanthropist of the Year,
Fergal Quinn, National Philanthropist of Year and Dr. Noelle Spring, KHF,
Brian Wilson Philanthropist of the Year.