Grantmaking picture
Archived analysis
This is an archived version of analysis from a previous year.
Number and size of UK grantmakers
For this report we’ve organised UK grantmakers into a number of different segments based on their grantmaking characteristics, with five broad categories. The categories are:
- Grantmaker – UK trusts and foundations making grants, generally to charities and non-profit groups in the UK. Includes Community Foundations, family and corporate foundations and others.
- Charity – grantmaking alongside other charitable activities or in the support of a single cause or institution.
- Government – grantmaking by central, local and devolved government.
- Lottery – grants made by the National Lottery Distributors.
- Other – Donor advised funds and international grantmakers.
More details on this segmentation are available in our methodology.
Number and size of UK grantmakers
By grantmaking segment, 2021-22
| Category | Segment | Total income | Total spending | Spending on grants | Number of grantmakers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grantmaker | Community Foundation | £229m | £178m | £140m | 54 |
| Corporate Foundation | £1,479m | £1,346m | £563m | 122 | |
| Family Foundation | £1,824m | £2,048m | £2,007m | 210 | |
| Fundraising Grantmaker | £949m | £949m | £415m | 58 | |
| General grantmaker | £3,050m | £2,612m | £1,737m | 1,264 | |
| Government/Lottery Endowed | £95m | £192m | £115m | 9 | |
| Member/Trade Funded | £695m | £745m | £344m | 915 | |
| Small grantmaker | £1,837m | £1,144m | £889m | 8,665 | |
| Wellcome Trust | £410m | £1,365m | £848m | 1 | |
| Lottery | Lottery Distributor | – | – | £1,969m | 12 |
| Charity | Charity | – | – | £2,979m | 293 |
| NHS/Hospital Foundation | – | – | £301m | 157 | |
| Government | Local | – | – | £600m | 400 |
| Central | – | – | £4,983m | 15 | |
| Devolved | – | – | £631m | 3 | |
| Arms Length Body | – | – | £153m | 5 | |
| Other | Donor Advised Fund | £1,872m | £1,630m | £1,470m | 29 |
| Total | – | – | – | £20,144m | 12,212 |
Note that income and spending figures are not available for some segments. Where a figure for spending on grants is not available the total spending for that organisation is used instead. Figures for local government are an estimate based on research by the Directory of Social Change.
Grantmaking in the UK context
Figures from grantmakers shared in the 360Giving Data Standard (see the recipients page for more details) suggest that between 25% to 50% of government grants by amount go to registered charities, and around 50%-70% of the grant amount from other funders (the uncertainty of these figures is due to the grant recipients without organisation identifiers).
Comparing to figures from the UK Civil Society Almanac 2022, published by NCVO, suggests that between 14% and 22% of the voluntary sector’s income comes from the grantmakers in this report, with government grants accounting for between 3% and 6% and grants from other grantmakers making up 12% to 17%.