A series of events that will challenge our most cherished fundraising ideas
We launched a series of online lectures in June 2020 to challenge your thinking about some of our beautiful fundraising theories. In each presentation the facts are lined up before the established wisdom. If our theories lose, we explore new thinking based upon the evidence.
November 2023: Notes from the Fishtank
Interim Review for 2022
The purpose of this paper is to give an insight into the current financial picture for grantmaking in the UK. The data source for this report is our record of 100 UK foundations’ accounts, aka the Fishtank, where we have nine year on year data points for each, stretching back to 2004. These funders are a typical cross-section of funders within a portfolio of a grant seeking organisation. We have included large funders, such as the Leverhulme Trust and smaller ones, such as the Walter Bigg Foundation. In 2021 these funders gave out £560 million on grants and had assets of £15 billion. As such, they are a reasonable insight into the world of UK foundation grant making.
Download the report here: Notes from the Fishtank 2022 interim report
September 2022: We All Pulled Together, or not….
What happened with foundation giving in 2020 and 2021?
Our latest research is ‘We All Pulled Together, or not…’ This is an in-depth exploration into exactly what took place with foundations during the pandemic. Many grantseekers and grantmakers experienced a period of increased philanthropy - a truly generous response to a global crisis. But is this exactly what took place? We investigated our unique study group of 100 UK foundations (with data from 2004 to 2021) and scouring publications on the subject. The research is very revealing about recent behaviour and provide indicators as to what will be happening in the immediate future.
Download the report here: We All Pulled Together, or not...
January 2021: Fine Margins
Is it stewardship or luck that leads to increased funding?
We poured over 1,461 data entries for annual grantmaking by 100 UK trusts between 2004 and 2019. From analysing the patterns within the £5 billion+ of grants, we addressed the following questions:
How often do Trusts go on spending sprees?
What types of Trusts are more more likely to dramatically change their giving?
How can we anticipate these opportunities and be prepared for them?
Which types of organisation tend to get these increased grants?
If they increase their giving to you, what next?
Download the report here: Fine Margins
November 2020: Keep Calm and Carry On…
Bill Bruty reviewed research papers from the US and UK which looked at how Foundations were likely to react to the economic and financial turbulence caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and drew on in-house research about lessons from the 2008-2009 financial crisis and intervening years that help to predict the future of Foundation giving.
Download the report here: Keep Calm and Carry On.
June 2020: Arguing with the Wind
We hosted an online lecture called Arguing with the Wind that looked at how foundations reacted to the financial crisis in 2008-2009, in order to make predictions about the situation in 2020. Our research included analysing the audited accounts of a study group of 100 foundations to determine how often they increased their giving from 2004 to 2018.
Download the report here: Arguing with the Wind
Our research is ongoing and we will be announcing more Brutal Facts presentations soon.