UK-based foundations are giving more money to charities through grants than government bodies, research suggests.
According to a new study from 360Giving, over £20bn was paid in grants to voluntary organisations in 2021-22.
Some £7bn of this (35%) came from non-governmental grantmaking organisations, with government bodies being the second-highest group of donors to the sector with £6.4bn (32%).
Fifth of charitable income from UK grants
The £20bn given to the voluntary organisations analysed compares to a collected income of £100bn for registered charities, the research says.
This was calculated from £81.1bn reported by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, £14.5bn for the Office of the Scottish Regulator and £2.6bn from the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.
It includes income of the grantmakers themselves if they are registered as charities.
The 12 lottery distributors provided over £1bn to the sector. Charitable organisations spent over £3bn in grants while donor-advised funds and international spent over £1bn.
Majority of grantmakers are small
The majority of grantmakers based in the UK are small, the study found. Some 61% of the grantmakers analysed gave under £100,000 a year.
Only 28 organisations gave over £100m a year, and of these, only five were charitable grantmakers.
Among them was the Wellcome Trust which spent more than £847m on grants in 2021-22.
Central government gave £4bn in grants, while local government gave £600m and devolved government departments gave £631m.
Smaller charities received the most grants
The majority of charity grant recipients (74%) in the data were those with an annual turnover of under £1m.
Charities with an annual income of between £100,000 and £1m were the most common grant recipients.
Some 83% of the grants were received in England, 13% in Scotland, 3% in Wales, and 1% in Northern Ireland.
Registered charities awarded the most grants overall
360Giving’s analysis shows that charities received 68% of the grants given out by grantmakers from 2021-22. Some 5% went to other non-profit organisations, 1% to government, with 22% unknown.
Charities received 33% of the grants given out by lottery distributors. 25% went to other non-profit organisations, 20% to individuals and 18% unknown.
Government gave 26% of its grants to charities, 21% to universities or other educational institutions, 17% to other non-profit organisations and 34% to unknown.
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