New figures from the National Lottery show that more than £1.5bn of funding was awarded to charitable organisations in 2015.
Figures made available on behalf of the National Lottery by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport show that 22,572 grants totalling some £1.515bn were made to good causes in 2015.
The figures were broken down by the different types of good causes. The arts sector received over £436m, heritage projects received over £431m, health, education, environmental and charitable projects received some £390m, while sports received over £257m.
According to the data, the biggest individual grant an organisation received in 2015 was the £33.2m given to The Wildlife Trusts on 27 August 2015 by the Big Lottery Fund. Opera North also received a £31.1m grant from the Arts Council England on 16 March 2015.
A spokesman from the National Lottery said that these figures were being announced to encourage recipients of grants to apply for 2016's National Lottery Awards.
Entries for the awards close at midnight 9 March 2016. The spokesman said that the award event itself will be held in “early Autumn” and will be broadcast live on the BBC.
