Margaret Bolton

Margaret Bolton is an independent consultant specialising in third sector policy. She has undertaken consultancy projects for a range of organisations including Arts Council England, Youth Music and the Cabinet Office.

Previously, Margaret was Communications Director at Arts Council England. She moved from this job to be Director of Policy and Research at the National Council of Voluntary Organisations. She led the organisation's work on charity law reform and was subsequently seconded to the review of charities and the wider not-for-profit sector at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit.

As a consultant she specialises in work on social investment and third sector capacity building. Together with Meg Abdy she has undertaken a number of projects on third sector capacity building. She wrote Foundations and social investment – making money work harder for a group of foundations including Esmee Fairbairn. She also produced a study of European foundations and social investment for the European Foundation Centre. She co-authored with David Carrington the MMM report New and Alternative Financial Instruments. She is a board member of Capacitybuilders. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York, and a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School.