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London has a dynamic funding ecosystem, with hundreds of cross-sector grantmakers and thousands of recipients, from large charities to local grassroots groups. We know how important sharing data is to see the grantmaking picture across London and to give funders and civil society a clear overview of where money is flowing, to what causes and what organisations. We hope the data below, while not perfect, helps add to the picture of London’s funding.
The way funding moves between the capital and elsewhere in the country can be a challenge in understanding the grantmaking picture in London. Often we are unable to identify where grants are delivered or where the people supported are based; we are only able to see where the organisation receiving the funding is located. It is particularly difficult to distinguish between funding that is intended to benefit London, and national funding received by an organisation based in London. This is due to the disproportionate number of larger and national charities that are registered in London or have a head office there.
As more organisations become remote, we are also seeing the impact of registered addresses not reflecting the areas where a charity operates. This deep dive with London Funders explores how we might better understand this geographical picture.
Recipients
In this section we are analysing grants data published using the 360Giving Data Standard with award dates between April 2023 and March 2024 to explore grant recipients based in London. This is not comprehensive as not all funders choose to share their data in this way, and in particular underrepresents local authorities where a smaller proportion have published their data. Nevertheless, it does include the larger funders and does provide some interesting perspectives.
Understanding how much grant funding is given to London compared to other towns and cities is a question of great interest, but is difficult to estimate given the available data. Typically, researchers use the address of grant recipients to estimate where grants are spent. However, this can produce inaccurate estimates as recipients may have headquarters in one area, but expend grants in another area. Using this approach to estimate the amount and value of grants received for London will likely result in an overestimate of what is actually provided to London.
In the analysis below we have experimented with different approaches to estimate the amount of grants likely to be received and spent in London by London based charities. Registered charities report their area of operation to the Charity Commission, selecting up to 10 local authorities that they work in. Options include individual boroughs, ‘throughout London’, UK constituent nations or picking from a list of overseas countries. Examining all charities that have registered London addresses, alongside data on their areas of operation, we have categorised London registered grant recipients into:
London registered and operate in London only;
London registered but operate nationally;
London registered but operate nationally and overseas;
and London registered but operate overseas.
The data shows that 56% of the number of grants awarded to London registered charities were provided to charities operating in London only. This represented only 28% of the value of grants, worth £207m. The majority of funds (£542m) were for national and international causes.
The majority (73%) of the London-only operating charities are small with a turnover of under £1m.
London-only charities received the highest proportion of grants that were less than £10,000 compared to other London registered charities, and all grants in general. Examining the overall grant amount, London-only charities had the smallest proportion of grants valued over £1m. This is despite the inclusion of grant recipient data from some relatively large London-only funders.
Charities on the Charity Commission for England and Wales register select ‘Who the charity helps’ from a list of eight different groups. Charities will often identify more than one group that they serve. As we cannot determine how each charity spends its money across different programmes or communities supported, there is no robust way of identifying how much of the grant amount supported each specific group. This means the total amount of grants for each charity will appear in all groups they selected, and the totals are over 100% as the groups are not mutually exclusive.
As with the overall grant recipients, a higher proportion of grants to London-only charities went to charities supporting children and young people. As you might expect reflecting London’s diverse population, a higher proportion of London-only grants supported people of a particular racial or ethnic origin (21%) compared to 17% of all London-based recipients and 9% of all registered charities.
Charities on the Charity Commission for England and Wales register also select ‘What the charity does’ from a list of 17 themes. Charities will often identify more than one sector that they work in. As with the communities served, we cannot determine how the charities allocate their money between these different themes. This means the total amount of grants for each charity will appear in each theme they have selected, and the totals are over 100% as the themes are not mutually exclusive.
London-only grant recipients were more likely than the overall recipients in London to be working in causes related to poverty, community development, disability, sports, and arts and culture.
London Funders members
London Funders is a cross-sector membership organisation and includes national funders as well as regional and local ones.
London Funders summary
2023-24
Segment
Total number of London Funders
No. London Funders with data
2023-24 Grantmaking Spending (£m)
2022-23 Grantmaking Spending (£m)
Percentage change
General Foundation
48
41
254.3
268.2
-5
Charity
25
20
25.4
22.5
1
Family Foundation
18
16
248.0
306.0
-19
Fundraising Grantmaker
13
13
45.3
80.8
-44
Corporate Foundation
19
12
82.0
70.8
16
Member/Trade Funded
8
8
49.6
37.7
39
Local
35
4
75.1
58.0
30
Donor Advised Fund
2
2
1,078.8
961.0
12
National Lottery Distributor
2
2
1,118.0
832.4
34
Community Foundation
2
2
12.5
13.5
-7
Government/Lottery Endowed
2
2
66.4
29.2
128
NHS/Hospital Foundation
1
1
3.1
5.0
-38
Total
175
123
3,058.5
2,684.6
14
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators and charity accounts.
Percentage change calculated only for organisations with data in both years.
It should be recognised that these figures include all spend by those grantmakers, not just spend in London. In our grant recipient analysis above, we have estimated the proportion that is distributed in London.
Local authorities play a huge role in supporting London’s civil society. Unfortunately, data on grantmaking by local authorities is not widely shared or collected to a common standard. This greatly impacts our understanding of the grantmaking picture. We made attempts to collect data through surveys and other mechanisms, but we don’t yet have enough to give an overview. 360Giving will continue to work with London Funders to support more local authorities to collect and publish their data using the 360Giving Data Standard over the coming years, to improve data available in the future.
The total grantmaking of London Funders members (including spend outside London and excluding local authorities, corporations and organisations whose accounts could not be identified) is estimated to be £3 billion in 2023-24 – an increase of 14% from 2022-23, mainly driven by increases of over £100m for each of the three largest members – Charities Aid Foundation (increase of £113m), National Lottery Community Fund (£146m), and National Lottery Heritage Fund (£140m).
Largest 25 London Funders members
2023-24 and previous year
2023-24 Rank
Name
Segment
2023-24 Grantmaking Spending (£m)
Percentage change
2023-24 Net Assets (£m)
Scope
1
Charities Aid Foundation
Donor Advised Fund
1,069.5
12
1,947.0
National
2
National Lottery Community Fund
National Lottery Distributor
779.2
23
-294.9
National
3
National Lottery Heritage Fund
National Lottery Distributor
338.8
70
-25.7
National
4
Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts*
Family Foundation
93.6
-43
1,044.8
National
5
City Bridge Foundation
General Foundation
82.9
38
1,531.7
London
6
Greater London Authority
Local
67.4
31
0.0
London
7
Social Investment Business Foundation
Government/Lottery Endowed
57.7
269
42.4
National
8
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Family Foundation
56.9
45
861.1
National
9
Henry Smith Charity
General Foundation
46.4
-29
1,258.7
National
10
Premier League Charitable Fund
Corporate Foundation
32.8
5
19.0
National
11
Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation
General Foundation
28.1
-15
915.8
London
12
BBC Children in Need
Fundraising Grantmaker
26.3
-58
47.7
National
13
Pears Foundation
Family Foundation
23.6
0
29.0
National
14
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales
Corporate Foundation
19.7
3
21.1
National
15
Masonic Charitable Foundation
Member/Trade Funded
19.4
8
392.5
National
16
Trust for London
General Foundation
17.7
-27
300.7
London
17
John Lyon's Charity
General Foundation
15.9
6
387.0
London
18
Tudor Trust
Family Foundation
15.8
-23
231.2
National
19
Goldsmiths' Company Charity
Member/Trade Funded
13.3
320
166.4
London
20
Lankelly Chase
General Foundation
12.2
-9
116.0
National
21
London Community Foundation
Community Foundation
11.5
-3
32.3
London
22
National Foundation for Youth Music
General Foundation
10.0
-5
4.0
National
23
Big Give Trust
Donor Advised Fund
9.3
103
1.5
National
24
Clothworkers' Foundation
Member/Trade Funded
8.9
21
350.6
National
25
Local Trust
Government/Lottery Endowed
8.8
-35
24.2
National
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators and charity accounts.
*Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust is the aggregate amount for the 16 trusts that were active during the year
Grantmaking figures for the Greater London Authority exclude £421m in grants to Local Authorities, including provision for free school meals for all children in the capital, and colleges for adult education provision
Most of the largest London Funders members publish their data using the 360Giving Data Standard which means that we are able to understand the funding ecosystem in more detail. We can also undertake analysis of recipients, as we have done above, to understand specific areas.
London Funders who funds with who
There is an ecosystem of funding between different London Funders members to charities in London. For those who have published their data using the 360Giving Data Standard, the diagram below shows the number of recipients funders have in common during the year – the thicker the chord, the more recipients funders have in common.
The view from London Funders
London is a dynamic and complex city and over the period of 2023-24 communities suffered with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, inflation, cuts to public spending, and uncertainty as it headed into Mayoral and General Elections. Whilst the grantmaking across London Funders members increased overall in 2023-24, (an increase of 14% from 2022-23), we also know that there is a more nuanced picture.
