Grant-giver Esmée Fairbairn grew the value of its portfolio by £38.2m to £907.6m, according to its annual report and accounts, released today.

The charity also has another £15m of social investments, giving it a total balance sheet of £923m.

The charity spent £41.4m on grants and has committed to spend £147.9m. It also committed another £6.6m to social investment.

Caroline Mason, chief executive of the foundation, wrote that her charity was moving to more core and unrestricted funding, after finding that this was what beneficiaries preferred. The foundation already gives out 63 per cent of its funding as core and unrestricted grants.

Mason also wrote about the importance of grant funding to the charity sector, and wrote critically about a drop in government grant-giving.

“It means that there is an ever scarcer supply of funding for taking and managing risk, for evidence-based, independent advocacy, and for reinvention and resilience-building.”

• A hard-copy of the accounts have been sent to Civil Society News, and are not yet available online.