Grantmakers
In this section we explore the comparative size of organisations making grants in the UK, continuing to use the following five categories:
- Trusts and Foundations – 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.
- Charities – grantmaking alongside other charitable activities or in the support of a single cause or institution.
- Government – grantmaking by central, local, devolved government and Arms Length Bodies to charitable causes. Comprehensive data for local and devolved governments could not be sourced.
- National Lottery – grants made by the National Lottery distributors.
- Other – Donor-Advised Funds, companies and international grantmakers.
We also go into detail on groups who are not examined elsewhere: Central government departments, Donor-Advised Funds, and charities.
Size of grantmakers
The majority of grantmakers are relatively small, distributing under £1 million a year.
However, looking at the proportion of grantmakers by band masks the difference in the number of organisations in each category.
Number of grantmakers by spending
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators, charity and other accounts, and data published using the 360Giving Data Standard.
Excludes local authorities and devolved governments – estimated to be over 400 organisations contributing over £1bn in grants. Excludes company giving.
The high proportion in the grantmaker category with zero/unknown spend reflects a high number of charitable trusts who are recorded on regulator registers as grantmakers, but are under the threshold for recording returns. Some of these are very small with expenditure of under £10,000 in the year, including investment fees and administration costs.
We explore this in more detail on the next page, which focuses on Trusts and Foundations.
Central government departments
Central government departments have significant grant programmes and distribution of spending through grants – however only a small proportion of this is directed to the voluntary and community sector. Total grantmaking published by the government for the year was £29.2bn (2022-23: £42.5bn). However, for the purpose of this analysis, the figures below exclude programmes not relevant to the sector such as formula grants to local authorities, funding of statutory bodies like the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, and other business-related grants that would greatly skew the overall grantmaking picture due to their scale and nature.
Excluding these programmes, there was an increase of 2% in grantmaking spend compared to the previous year, which is below the average rate of inflation during the year of 5.7%.
Compared to the previous year, there were also some significant structural and departmental changes:
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ): Formed by separating energy and climate policy responsibilities from the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
- Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT): Established by consolidating science and innovation policies from BEIS with the digital portfolio of the former Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
- Department for Business and Trade (DBT): Created by merging the Department for International Trade with the business-focused functions of BEIS.
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport: From the previous DCMS, focusing on cultural and media responsibilities, but excluding digital functions
Overall, there has been a below-inflation increase of 2% in grantmaking spend compared to the previous year.
Central government departments: Grantmaking spend
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators and data published using the 360Giving Data Standard at 25th April 2025.
Arms Length Bodies
Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) are organisations that operate independently from government ministers but are still accountable to them. They are funded by public money and are a crucial part of the UK’s public sector landscape, responsible for delivering a wide range of public services. Some of these are delivered by charitable organisations receiving grants from ALBs.
ALBs have a degree of operational independence from direct ministerial control. This allows them to carry out their functions with a level of impartiality. Despite their independence, ALBs are accountable to government ministers, who in turn are accountable to Parliament for their activities. This is often managed through a sponsoring government department.
ALBs perform diverse roles, including
- Delivering public services (eg, issuing driving licenses, managing prisons).
- Providing expert advice to the government.
- Regulating specific industries or activities.
- Making legal judgments (in the case of tribunals).
- Promoting culture or other national interests.
Overall, grantmaking spending increased by 6% compared to the previous year. This was partly driven by a £548m increase in grantmaking by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Arms Length Bodies: Grantmaking spend
Source: 360Giving analysis from data published using the 360Giving Data Standard at 22nd May 2024 and regulator data. Excludes National Lottery Distributors which have been reported separately.
Donor-Advised Funds
A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is a giving account established at a registered charity. The umbrella charity serves as a “sponsoring organisation”, which manages and administers individual DAF accounts.
DAF accounts allow donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction and then recommend grants from the fund over time. Donors can contribute to the fund as frequently as they like, and then recommend grants to their preferred charitable organisations whenever it makes sense for them.
Some foundations are run through a DAF and do not produce separate accounts. Some DAFs specialise in small donations, including donation platforms, rather than grants. It is not possible to separate these out in the data so we have included all the grants/donations recorded from these “sponsoring organisations” in UKGrantmaking. We were also unable to separate out grants made through direct grant programmes of these organisations from their DAF functions. We are working with several DAF providers to improve the availability of data in future.
DAFs are an important but less visible part of philanthropy in the UK.
Overall, there has been an increase of 20% in grantmaking spend compared to the previous year.
Donor-Advised Funds summary
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators and charity accounts.
Percentage change calculated only for organisations with data in both years.
Largest 25 Donor-Advised Funds by grantmaking spend
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators and charity accounts.
*Charities Aid Foundation has published 360Giving data about selected grantmaking programmes, but does not publish grants data in its capacity as a Donor Advised Fund. Grantmaking spending figure includes direct grants distributed, as well as Donor Advised Funds.
For the majority of providers, the expenditure (mainly grants) is at a similar level to income (mainly donations), with a proportionate level of assets held at year end. What is not clear from the information available is the speed of flow of individual funds. The patterns here could include some assets being held for a very long time and others going in and out within a year.
Charities
The Charities segment of the grantmaking picture includes organisations that provide grants alongside other charitable activities, so they are not primarily a funder, or they make grants to their members or in support of a single cause or institution. The largest 25 organisations are provided below for context. Grantmaking for the largest 25 charities was £2.2bn, an increase of 1% for the same organisations compared to the previous year. This small increase means a decline in real terms once adjusted for inflation and is partially due to several international development and aid organisations distributing higher levels of funds in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022-23.
Largest 25 Charities by grantmaking spend
Source: 360Giving analysis of data from charity regulators and charity accounts.