Grantmaking Trusts and Foundations
There are some 7,500 - 10,000 registered trusts and foundations in the UK (depending on your definitions). There are a small number of large grantmakers which give out public money - e.g., The Big Lottery is the single largest grant maker in the UK giving out around £650 million each year; while the various Arts Councils in England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland distribute around £500 million of Grants-in-Aid from central government money. There are also a large number of "private" grantmakers which may be set up and run by companies, families or individuals.
Cat's research in this area includes 9 years working on Charities Aid Foundation's Charity Trends publication tracking the UK's top grantmakers, and 5 years working on the successor to this: Foundation Giving Trends, as well as assorted other projects.
The Foundation Giving Trends series
“‘a must-read for everyone in the charity sector’ ”
The Foundation Giving Trends series is a longitudinal analysis of the top 300 UK grant-making foundations - their giving, income and assets.
Foundation Giving Trends 2021
Foundation Giving Trends 2021 finds that, at the beginning of the global Covid-19 pandemic, foundation grant-making has continued to grow, rising by 7.8% (excluding the Wellcome Trust).
“This year’s report highlights the various ways in which foundations responded to the early phases of pandemic. The foundations studied for this analysis responded quickly to the crisis, committing significant amounts to emergency funding, and changing some practices almost overnight. Not only did foundations ‘show up’ but in many cases they led the way, forging a path to get money to the sector quickly and working collaboratively with other funders.”
Foundation Giving Trends Update 2020
This 2020 edition of Foundation Giving Trends covers the financial year 2018/19. Delayed by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, this shorter update shows that in the year before the global Covid-19 pandemic, the Top 300 foundations were already beginning to face major funding challenges in meeting increasing need.
The full Foundation Giving Trends 2021 report will be published in December 2021.
Foundation Giving Trends 2019
Foundation Giving Trends 2019 updates the latest headline figures and shows that, despite complications, most foundations increased grant-giving despite falling income this year.
Foundation Giving Trends 2018
Foundation Giving Trends 2018 updates the latest headline figures and features a special spread on place-based funding.
Foundation Giving Trends 2017
A special feature this year demonstrated the innovative ways foundations are working in partnership to drive social benefit.
Foundation Giving Trends 2016
This year the report included a special analysis on "Where the money goes" - an analysis of 16,500 grants showing that education and health top the billing:
ACF’s Stronger Foundations programme has engaged over 100 foundations, potentially the largest foundation engagement initiative of its kind in the world. Cat contributed to the Impact and Learning stream which results in this timely and insightful report.
The state of capital grant funding
Download the article here
This report, commissioned by The Clothworkers' Foundation in 2015, analyses the state of the UK's capital funding for charities. The main finding was that despite its importance for the future sustainability of the UK charity sector, capital grant funding has taken a particular hit in the current funding climate.
Sector Insight: UK Grantmaking Trusts
In 2015 the Directory of Social Change (DSC) published its contribution to the debate on trust funding and its place in the voluntary sector landscape, authored by Dr Catherine Walker and Tom Traynor.
“‘Timely and important … a fascinating insight into the funders’ world... For me the real value of this report is that we can at last begin to understand the distributive impact of grant-making in the UK.’ ”
Where do grant-makers give?
Trust funding versus level of need demonstrated by income deprivation (Sector Insight: UK grant-making trusts and foundations, 2015)