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Charities throughout the UK are benefiting from the wealth of the largest trusts and foundations like never before, says the editor of the latest edition of ‘A Guide to the Major Trusts’, a well respected resource for charity fundraisers.
The top 400 UK trusts (excluding the Big Lottery Fund and Awards for All), gave away over £2.3 billion in 2005/06, the year for which most recent figures are available. The Top 25 trusts alone gave almost £959 million in the latest edition.
This compares with £217 million of giving from the Top 25 trusts described in the 1991 edition of the Guide. Allowing for inflation, this would be worth around £326 million today, a rise of around 290% in 15 years.
‘Even allowing for inflation, the generosity of wealthy individuals may not have been so great since that displayed by the great philanthropists of the nineteenth century, like Carnegie and Rowntree,’ said Tom Traynor, Editor of the Guide. ‘However, the need for support and funding from charitable trusts and foundations is greater today than it has ever been.’
‘This is largely the case due to the proportion of funding in the form of grants from the Government falling in favour of contracts to deliver public services. General grantmaking from trusts and foundations is often a lifeline to help operational charities to achieve their objectives.’
This 11th edition of ‘A Guide to the Major Trusts’ is dedicated to Luke FitzHerbert, a senior DSC researcher who sadly died earlier this year. Luke edited this Guide for almost 20 years, producing nine editions. ‘Luke’s passion and commitment to transparency in funding practices has ensured that DSC’s funding guides have helped thousands of charities make the best decisions about who to approach for funding. We intend to continue that work,’ said Traynor.
‘A Guide to the Major Trusts Volume 1’, detailing the top 400 trusts, and its companion Volume 2, giving details of a further 1,100 trusts which make annual awards totalling over £171 million, are available from the Directory of Social Change, www.dsc.org.uk price £39.95 each. Or the information is also available by subscription to www.trustfunding.org.uk