Some of the sector’s largest foundations are discussing creating a map of all charitable grant funding around the UK, the chief executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has said.

The foundation, which has assets of just under £900m, is one of the ten largest funders in the UK. Caroline Mason, who took over at the foundation last year, told Civil Media that her charity has started preliminary conversations over the grants map but has made no firm decisions yet.

“When I started my current job I asked where I could get a map of all foundation funding in the UK and I was told it didn’t exist,” Mason said. “I thought it would be a really useful thing to have. Now we’re starting to look at what a map of charitable grant funding might look like. At the moment we’re working out whether it can be done.”

She said that ideally the map would consider what size of grants were available, how long they were for, who the beneficiaries were, the geographic areas where they were available, and what types of charities could apply.

She said the map would also consider what type of funding was available – whether it was restricted or unrestricted, and whether it was open to applications.

“Ideally you could use it to break down what funding was available for charities working with young people in Stoke, for example,” she said. “You could also use it to identify what we call cold spots where charitable activity is not well-funded.”