Our story
“I want to know what people are doing so I can learn from them, I can collaborate with them and I can get better at my job … Philanthropy can feel a bit like giving in the dark and I just want us to have better information so we can make the best decisions.”
This is why philanthropist Fran Perrin OBE founded 360Giving in 2015. Since then, we’ve supported hundreds of organisations to publish their grants openly – transforming our collective understanding of grantmaking in the UK.
You can hear more from Fran on the ‘Do one better’ podcast.
2025
UKGrantmaking’s second edition launched
The second edition of UKGrantmaking brought the analysis forward another year, covering data and insights on 2023-24.
GrantNav exceeded £300bn worth of grants data
Following the publication of another year’s worth of grantmaking by the UK central government, the value of grants represented in the data exceeded over £300 billion – tripling overall since 2021.
2024
Over 300 grantmakers publishing their grants data
With the 20 Postcode Trusts of the People’s Postcode Lottery sharing their grants data using the 360Giving Data Standard, you can now access and use data on grants made by over 300 different funders in our tools.
UKGrantmaking is launched!
UKGrantmaking is the definitive annual interactive publication for data and insights about grantmakers in the UK across all funding sectors.
Developed through a unique cross-sector partnership with the Association of Charitable Foundations, the Association of Charitable Organisations, UK Community Foundations, and London Funders, UKGrantmaking builds on June 2023’s snapshot and underpins our ambition to inform decision making and inspire practice in funders and wider stakeholders.
Over 1 million grants published using the 360Giving Data Standard
The number of grants published using the 360Giving Data Standard exceeded 1 million, representing over £265 billion worth of funding shared by 275 funders – including the UK central government’s 2022-23 grants data.
2023
360Giving wins Data award at the OpenUK Awards 2023
We were proud to win the OpenUK award for Data in recognition of our work advancing open grants data in the UK.
UK Grantmaking 2021-22: A snapshot published
We provided a consolidated view of grantmaking data across different sectors for the first time, in a concise and accessible format through interactive visualisations.
This represents a stepping stone toward a more ambitious long-term vision to provide a more comprehensive picture of funding activities across diverse sectors and geographies.
360Giving Chief Executive Tania Cohen was awarded an MBE
360Giving Chief Executive Tania Cohen was awarded an MBE for her services to charity and social justice, including for her work leading 360Giving.
We were also pleased to be a runner up in the Grantmaking and Funding category of the Charity Awards.
GrantNav exceeded £200bn worth of grants data
Data exceeded over £200bn of grants as the central UK Government published data about over 70,000 grants worth a total of £35.9bn.
360Giving Data Standard updated to support sharing grants to individuals
In our first significant update since Version 1.0, Version 1.3 of the 360Giving Data Standard was released. This made it possible to share data about grants to individuals, as well as describe grants intended for regranting, and grants’ location scope.
Sector Infrastructure Funding report published
We demonstrated how it has changed over the last 12 years, particularly by looking at its finances and funding.
2022
Two new trustees were welcomed to the board
We welcomed two new trustees to the board: Adam Lopardo and Lucy Palfreyman as Treasurer.
We also said thank you and goodbye to Geoff Chapman after 6 years’ service as Treasurer and Manny Hothi after 3 years on the Board.
Our Cost of Living Grants Tracker was launched as the first Cost of Living response grants were published
To make it easier to access Cost-of-Living-related grants data, we launched the Cost of Living Grants Tracker. This pulls and visualises data published by funders about their grants made in response to the crisis, updated daily.
Specialist Legal Advice Providers Report published
We worked with The Access to Justice Foundation to produce a report analysing funding for specialist legal advice providers in England and Wales.
It shows the kinds of analysis that can be done with data published using the 360Giving Data Standard.
360Giving welcomes Fozia Irfan as new chair
We welcomed Fozia Irfan OBE, Director of Children and Young People at BBC Children in Need, as our new Chair of Trustees.
360Giving’s Chair and Founder, Fran Perrin OBE stepped down from the Board after almost seven years at the helm.
GrantNav exceeded £170bn worth of grants data
Data exceeded over £170bn of grants as the central UK Government published data about their 2020-21 grantmaking.
New strategy launched
360Giving launched ‘Unleashing the Impact of Grants Data’, a strategy which marks a step change in direction for the way we work.
2021
We published our Covid research
This research explored data shared by 174 grantmakers on their relief and recovery funding, covering 66,000 grants worth almost £2.4 billion.
We exceeded 200 funders publishing their data using the 360Giving Data Standard
GrantNav brought together data from over 200 funders who published their data using the 360Giving Data Standard.
GrantNav upgraded
We launched an improved version of GrantNav with better search functionality and user experience, in time for 360Giving’s sixth birthday.
We also reflected on how the grants data has changed.
COVID-19 Grants Tracker exceeded £1bn
Data on over £1bn of COVID-19 related grants could be explored on the COVID-19 Grants Tracker after the central UK Government published data about £477m grants given in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We launched the DEI Data Standard
With The Social Investment Consultancy, we developed a shared taxonomy for equalities data, steered by the DEI Data Group.
GrantNav exceeded £100bn worth of grants data
Data exceeded over £100bn of grants as the central UK Government published data about over 52,000 grants worth a total of £31.8bn.
2020
Six new trustees were welcomed to the board
We welcomed six new trustees to the board: Dr Danil Mikhailov, Farah Ahmed and Jon Cracknell started in December 2020, whilst Thrisha Haldar, Jo Kerr and Bonnie Chiu started in July 2021. This comes as we say thank you and goodbye to several trustees – Alice Casey, Will Perrin, Anna de Pulford.
360Giving Founder and Chair Fran Perrin was awarded an OBE
360Giving Founder and Chair Fran Perrin was awarded an OBE in recognition of her charitable services, including for setting up and driving 360Giving, particularly during COVID-19.
UK Government published data about 2018-19 grants
16 central UK Government departments published data about 43,000 grants that were active in 2018-19, with a total value of £32bn.
Our ‘Below the Radar’ report was published
With NCVO, we published the ‘Below the Radar’ report exploring grants data published in the 360Giving Data Standard, about grassroots organisations.
Our COVID-19 Grants Tracker was launched as the first COVID-19 response grants were published
To make it easier to access COVID-19-related grants data, we launched the COVID-19 Grants Tracker. This pulls and visualises data published by funders about their grants made in response to the crisis, updated daily.
Rachel Rank stepped down as CEO, and we welcomed Tania Cohen
After four and a half years, we said goodbye to Rachel Rank, 360Giving’s first CEO, and welcomed Tania Cohen into the role.
2019
Our first Data Champions programme was launched
Our Data Champions programme brings grantmakers together to collaborate and learn how to grow a data culture in their funding organisations.
Our 2019-2021 strategy launched
Our 2019-2021 strategy, ‘Unlocking the Power of Grants Data‘, focused on helping funders to go beyond sharing data, to improving its quality and using it more in their day-to-day work.
The 100th funder published their grants data
The Nuffield Foundation became the 100th grantmaker to publish their data in the 360Giving Data Standard.
We were honoured to win the Digital Agenda Business Transformation Impact Award for 2019.
360Insights was launched
We launched 360Insights to help understand specific funders better. You can combine and visualise 360Giving and charity data to understand funders better, and explore funding across different areas – from grant dates to types of recipients.
We won the Digital Impact Award
We were honoured to win the Digital Agenda Business Transformation Impact Award for 2019.
2018
We created the ‘Who funds with who’ visual
We used 360Giving data in a visualisation to see the connections between funders.
UK Government adopted the 360Giving Data Standard
The 360Giving Data Standard was approved by the Open Standards Board for use for disclosing grant data by UK government organisations.
We co-wrote a guide to sharing data responsibly
The guide helps funders think about how to have better conversations about responsible data.
Version 1.0 of the 360Giving Data Standard was released
After two years in beta for evaluation, we officially launched the Data Standard.
The UK’s largest independent funder published its data
The UK’s largest charitable funder, the Wellcome Trust, published £6bn worth of grants in the 360Giving Data Standard. This brought the total of published grants data to over £24bn from 75 funders.
2017
£4bn of government grants opened up
A first batch of central government grants was published to the 360Giving Data Standard – for the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Transport – as part of its commitment made under the Open Government Partnership.
We pilot our first data use programme
Our first data use programme was launched, working with grant giving organisations in Greater Manchester.
Beehive Giving was launched
Beehive Giving was launched, helping people looking for funds to connect with the right funders using 360Giving data.
2016
Won the Women in Data Award
We were delighted to win the Open Data Institute’s Women in Data Award 2016, presented by inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
GrantNav was launched with £8bn of grants data to explore
We launched our free search-engine for grants data, GrantNav, with data about 184,000 grants from 25 funders.
2015
Rachel Rank was appointed as first CEO
Rachel Rank was appointed as 360Giving’s first CEO and 360Giving was registered as a charity.
360Giving was formally constituted
360Giving was registered as an independent company and charity and spun out of Nesta. A Board of Directors/Trustees was appointed.
2014
First steering group met
A project steering group was set up by the Indigo Trust with the Big Lottery Fund, Nominet Trust and Nesta. The initiative was met with a strong positive response from grantmakers and Nesta agreed to incubate 360Giving.