New report maps £24 billion in UK civil society grants

The figure covers trusts, foundations, donor-advised funds, charities, National Lottery distributors, and the government departments that fund civil society organisations.

The UK Cabinet Office's own grants register, last published in March, records £160 billion in total central government grants expenditure for 2024–25. Most is formula-based funding automatically distributed to schools, local authorities and emergency services. The discretionary component – competitive and criteria-based grants to organisations – totals £36 billion across 1,702 schemes.

Now in its third year, the UKGrantmaking 2026 report takes the form of a free interactive platform coordinated by 360Giving, covering data from 2024 to 2025. It lets funders, sector bodies, policymakers, researchers, and fundraisers explore who is giving what, to whom, and where.

Amid the overall increase, grants from individual grantmakers vary considerably, while charities are generally facing rising demand for services and increased operating costs, meaning competition for funding has grown alongside the rising total available.

Among the key findings:

• Trusts and foundations (excluding Wellcome Trust) remain the largest single category, growing 5 per cent to £7.4 billion.
• Donor-advised funds are emerging as a significant force, reaching £2.4 billion, up 8 per cent on the previous year and up 29 per cent since 2022–23.
• Endowment levels have remained relatively flat over five years, declining in real terms since 2020–21.
• The majority of grantmakers are small, distributing under £1 million annually.
• Grants are disproportionately reaching organisations in the most deprived areas: 18 per cent of grants to local or regional organisations went to those in the most deprived areas, compared with just 4 per cent in the least deprived. For grants to individuals and families, 55 per cent of recipients were in the most deprived areas.
• The median published grant rose from £13,194 in 2023–24 to £19,635 in 2024–25, driven partly by the National Lottery Community Fund raising its Awards for All maximum to £20,000.

The report also addresses a persistent concern about so-called London-centric funding. In truth, only 18 per cent of the value of grants to organisations registered in London was for delivery exclusively within the city, indicating that the capital acts as a base for distribution of funds well beyond its metropolitan borders.

UKGrantmaking is a collaborative project published under the Funders Together umbrella, with partners including the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), the Association of Charitable Organisations (ACO), UK Community Foundations (UKCF), the Pears Foundation, and London Funders. It builds on earlier research including the Foundation Giving Trends series, supported by the Pears Foundation since 2008.

SmartyGrants executive director Kathy Richardson said the report filled a genuine gap in knowledge.

"What makes UKGrantmaking’s report valuable is that it doesn't just tell you about the quantity of funds, but illustrates where funding is going, who's making decisions, and where the gaps are," she said.

"For grantmakers trying to understand their place in the broader picture, and for grantseekers navigating a complex landscape, the transparency provided by this resource is really useful and is a step towards making better decisions.”

The UKGrantmaking platform is free to access and can be read as a full report or explored by section, with interactive visualisations and data available for download. Explore UKGrantmaking 2026