How has the grants data grown?
Th visualisations in this blog are out of date. Please visit threesixtygiving.org/data for up to date visualisations and statistics.
Since 360Giving was formally constituted in July 2015, we’ve been working towards our vision of more informed and effective grantmaking through normalising open data sharing. As we reach a critical mass of funders publishing their grants data, we take the opportunity to reflect on how the 360Giving data has changed and grown over time.
In September 2016 we launched GrantNav, our free search-engine for grants data. At that point, you could explore 184,000 grants worth £8.5bn from 25 funders. Today, almost five years later, you can explore data about 583,000 grants worth over £108bn from 196 funders – that’s more than triple the number of grants, over 12 times the value, and almost 8 times the number of funders!
We want to support you to understand the data and get the most from it, so we’ve created some interactive visuals using Flourish.
Data on 580,000 grants published since 2015
The bar chart race below shows the number of grants that different funders have published in the 360Giving Data Standard since 2015, when 360Giving was founded. The date corresponds to the date the grant was awarded, not the date published.
You can click on the different funder types to exclude their data from the chart to better understand one funder type. For example, selecting only ‘Government’ means you can compare how different UK Government departments and authorities awarded their data over time.
It shows that the Department of Education has awarded the largest number of grants compared to other government bodies who have published in the 360Giving Data Standard. However, when viewed with all the funders, the National Lottery Community Fund, as a single funder, has awarded the most number of grants – almost 50% of the total published in the 360Giving Data Standard.
(Open the bar chart in another tab.)
196 funders have published grants data
The packed circles diagram below shows the funders who’ve published their grants data in the 360Giving Data Standard since March 2019, by the number of grants. You can also select to see the circles by number of recipients and amount awarded (GBP). You can click on the circles to zoom in, and hover over them to see information about each funder.
The visual shows that Community Foundations have published data on over 12,600 grants worth £76m in total; Grantmaking Organisations have published data on over 35,300 grants worth £2bn; Lottery Distributors have published data on over 33,000 grants worth £1bn; and finally, Government bodies have published data on over 60,700 grants worth £32bn.
(Open the packed circle diagram in another tab.)
Best ways to explore the data
As increasing numbers of funders have published increasing amounts of data, we’ve developed several free online tools to help you explore, compare and understand the data. This means that the data can be accessed and understood by anyone and it is often used by funders, fundraisers, researchers and more. Read about our different tools so you can explore the data in the most appropriate way.
We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and our achievements to date. We’ve reached a critical mass of funders publishing grants data and in doing so have changed the status quo of grantmaking in the UK. Understand our successes and milestones to date on Our History page.