UK foundations granted £290m to overseas development in 2009/10
Howard Lake | 17 October 2011 | News
Research by Cass Business School reveals that the UK’s charitable foundations made grants of £290 million to overseas development and related causes in 2009/10. This represents 9% of the total of just over £3 billion that UK independent foundations made in grants that year.
The sum donated is almost half the the bilateral aid support given by the Department for International Development (DFID) to such organisations.
The study was carried out by the ESRC Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy at Cass Business School, for The Nuffield Foundation, The Baring Foundation and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, all of whom are international funders.
The research found that:
• The region attracting the highest number of foundation funders is Africa (37%), in particular East Africa. This is followed by Asia (23%), and the Americas (13%)
• Foundation support for civil society organisations in Africa is worth more than £90 million, and for Asia £56 million
• Independent foundations support a diverse range of subject areas: direct health care and formal education attract the highest number of foundation funders (12% each), and sustainable economic/ agricultural development and investment attracts 10%, followed by utilities and infrastructure (9%)
• Children and youth causes attract funding from 38% of the foundations surveyed.
The research, entitled ‘Global grantmaking: A review of UK foundations’ funding for international development’, updates a previous study in 2007 entitled ‘Going Global’ by Lucy de Las Casas and Caroline Fiennes (2007) for New Philanthropy Capital.
Since then new foundations which fund internationally have been formed, including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, The Waterloo Foundation, the Wood Family Trust and the Ashmore Foundation.
Professor Cathy Pharoah conducted the study. She said: “The research shows how UK foundations are playing an increasingly substantial and dynamic role in shaping civil society in developing countries. Given the huge challenges of the global environment, it is important for foundations and other funders to share more experience and knowledge on effective interventions.@
The research identified and studied 90 independent UK foundations that each made grants of at least £50,000 per annum for international development and related causes in 2009/10. Their charitable spending represents 74% of the spending of all independent UK foundations.
Headline findings will be launched at a conference in London on 18th October, and the full report published in November.
www.cgap.org.uk
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.