Trends in UK Philanthropy: Technology and Trust

UK philanthropy is undergoing a structural shift. Grantmaking by trusts and foundations reached a record £8.2 billion in 2023/24 -- a 12% increase on the previous year, according to UKGrantmaking. At the same time, 76% of charities now report using AI tools, up from 61% just a year earlier (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025). Donor-advised funds distributed £787.7 million in 2024, a 22% year-on-year jump (NPT UK DAF Report 2025). And over 300 funders now publish their grants data through the 360Giving Data Standard.

Yet the headline growth figures mask a more complex reality. The proportion of UK adults giving to charity has fallen to 50%, down from 58% in 2019 (CAF UK Giving Report 2025). Foundation endowments grew by just 6% in nominal terms -- effectively flat once inflation is accounted for. Application volumes to some funders have surged by 100--400%, partly driven by applicants using free generative AI tools. The sector is navigating a tension between expanding capability and maintaining the trust that makes philanthropy work.

This article examines the forces reshaping UK philanthropy in 2025 and 2026: the technology that is accelerating it, the transparency frameworks that are holding it accountable, and the trust-based practices that are changing the funder-grantee relationship.

How much is the UK philanthropy sector worth today?

Total grantmaking across the UK reached over £23 billion in 2023/24, according to the UKGrantmaking 2025 report -- an increase of approximately 7% on the previous year. That figure spans trusts and foundations, government programmes, the National Lottery and donor-advised funds.

Within that total, charitable trusts and foundations accounted for £8.2 billion, having increased their grant spend by over 6% in real terms during a period when inflation averaged 5.7% (ACF Foundations in Focus 2025). Philanthropic giving has now overtaken government as the dominant grant funder of the UK voluntary sector. National Lottery distributors awarded over £2.4 billion, while donor-advised funds contributed a further £2.1 billion -- a 20% increase (UKGrantmaking 2025).

On the individual giving side, the public donated an estimated £15.4 billion in 2024, though the CAF UK Giving Report shows this is sustained by a narrowing base: the 50% of adults who still give are contributing more per person (an average of £72 per month), while the total number of donors continues to fall. The voluntary sector's total income stood at £69.1 billion in 2021/22, according to the NCVO UK Civil Society Almanac 2024.

The structural picture is one of growing philanthropic flows, but with concentration risk: just 4% of charities account for 96% of the sector's income and spending.

What is driving AI adoption across the sector?

Three-quarters of UK charities now use AI tools in some form, according to the Charity Digital Skills Report 2025. That figure was 61% just twelve months earlier. The most common use is administrative: 46% of charities use AI for tasks such as drafting communications, summarising meetings or generating content, up from 32% the year before. Strategic use of AI has more than doubled, rising from 11% to 25%.

For funders, AI is reshaping two critical workflows. The first is due diligence: AI tools can now cross-reference applicant details against the Charity Commission register, Companies House records and financial filings in minutes rather than hours. The second is impact reporting, where AI can synthesise monitoring data, attendance figures and case study narratives into structured funder reports tailored to each grant programme's requirements.

On the applicant side, the effect has been dramatic. The ACF Foundations in Focus 2025 report notes that free generative AI models have contributed to application surges of 50--60% at many funders, with some reporting increases of 100--400%. This has created a new challenge: how to maintain assessment quality when volumes outstrip capacity.

Yet AI adoption remains uneven. Only 8% of charities use AI in service delivery, and 37% have taken no action to move forward with it. Over a third of charity chief executives were rated as having poor AI skills by their own staff. The proportion of charities with a digital strategy actually fell from 50% to 44%, even as tool adoption accelerated. For a deeper look at how grantmakers specifically are using AI, see our guide to AI for funders.

How is technology changing funder-grantee relationships?

The most significant shift in UK philanthropy over the past five years is not a technology but a philosophy: the move towards trust-based grantmaking. The Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) now has 170 funders signed up to its eight "Open and Trusting" commitments, which emphasise proportionate information requests, light-touch reporting, transparent decision-making and genuine partnership between funder and grantee.

In practice, this means shorter application forms, simpler reporting templates and a willingness to accept reports that grantees have already prepared for other funders. Some Open and Trusting funders use a single tick-box form for all accountability reporting. Others allow grantees to choose their own outcomes, set their own targets and report frankly on both successes and challenges.

Technology makes this approach viable at scale. When a funder can pull real-time data from a shared platform -- attendance figures, outcome measures, financial drawdowns -- there is less need for the grantee to compile a separate narrative report from scratch. AI-generated summaries of programme activity can be reviewed and approved by staff rather than written from a blank page, freeing capacity for the relationship-building that trust-based philanthropy depends on.

This dovetails with the trend towards proportionate reporting explored in our guide on how to reduce the burden on grant applicants. The organisations leading on trust-based practice are not abandoning accountability; they are using technology to make accountability less burdensome.

What does the transparency landscape look like?

Transparency in UK philanthropy now operates through several interlocking frameworks. The most established is the 360Giving Data Standard, which provides a consistent format for publishing grants data. Over 300 funders have shared data through the standard, representing more than £300 billion in cumulative grants published (360Giving, 2025). This open data allows charities, researchers and policymakers to see who is funding what, where, and in what amounts.

The Foundation Practice Rating assesses 100 UK foundations each year on their transparency, accountability and diversity practices. The 2025 results showed gradual improvement across all three categories, though diversity remained the weakest area, with no foundation receiving an A rating in that domain.

Public trust in charities has reached its highest level since 2014, with a trust score of 6.5 out of 10, according to the Charity Commission's Public Trust in Charities 2024 research. Charities are the second most trusted group in society, behind only doctors. The 2025 follow-up confirmed this, with 57% of people reporting high trust in charities.

However, awareness of regulatory bodies remains low -- only 19% of the public say they know the Charity Commission well -- and the proportion with low trust edged up from 9% to 10% in 2025. For funders, the implication is clear: transparency is not optional; it is a competitive advantage that sustains both public confidence and applicant trust. Our guide on building transparency into grant decisions explores this in more detail.

How are donor-advised funds reshaping giving?

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) have become one of the fastest-growing giving vehicles in UK philanthropy. Contributions to UK DAFs totalled £864.5 million in 2024, according to the NPT UK 2025 DAF Report, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% over the five years from 2020 to 2024. Grants from DAFs to other charities reached £787.7 million -- a 22.1% increase over the prior year. Total charitable assets held in DAFs now stand at £3.1 billion, up 10.3% year on year.

DAFs appeal to donors who want a structured, tax-efficient way to manage their giving over time. They are particularly popular among high-net-worth individuals: 57% of HNW donors have contributed illiquid or non-cash assets to their DAF in the past two years. Looking ahead, 74% of HNW donors plan to increase their giving in 2025, with an average planned increase of 15%.

The growth of DAFs raises questions for the sector. Critics argue that DAFs can delay the flow of money to frontline charities, since there is no obligation to distribute funds within a set timeframe. Advocates counter that the 2024 aggregate payout rate was 28.3%, significantly higher than the 5% minimum distribution required of US private foundations. The UKGrantmaking 2025 report includes DAFs as a distinct and growing segment of UK grantmaking for the first time, reflecting their increasing significance.

For charities seeking funding, DAFs represent an increasingly important source of income that requires different cultivation strategies from traditional grant applications or individual giving appeals.

What challenges are smaller organisations facing?

The digital divide in UK philanthropy is widening. According to the Charity Digital Skills Report 2025, 68% of small charities are still in the early stages of digital adoption, compared with much higher levels of digital maturity among larger organisations. Squeezed finances are the biggest barrier for 69% of respondents, followed by lack of funds for infrastructure (64%) and insufficient capacity (63%).

This divide has practical consequences. When funders move application processes online, require digital reporting or expect data-driven impact evidence, organisations without the right tools or skills are disadvantaged. The surge in AI-assisted grant applications exacerbates this: well-resourced applicants can submit polished, AI-enhanced proposals while smaller organisations with deeper community roots may struggle to compete.

The NCVO Almanac data underscores the structural inequality: 80% of voluntary organisations have income below £100,000, yet 4% of organisations with income above £1 million account for 96% of total sector income and spending. Government funding disproportionately flows to larger organisations, with smaller charities receiving just 4% of total statutory funding despite often being closest to the communities they serve.

Addressing this gap requires deliberate action from funders. Proportionate application processes, accessible digital tools and targeted capacity-building support are all part of the solution. For a broader look at the digital divide in grantmaking, see our guide on the digital divide in grantmaking.

Comparing traditional and emerging philanthropy models

The following table summarises how key dimensions of UK philanthropy are shifting from established to emerging practice.

What role does technology play in building trust?

Technology and trust are not opposing forces. The most effective uses of technology in philanthropy are those that reduce friction, increase visibility and free up time for human relationships. When a funder can see programme attendance data updated in real time, or when AI generates a first draft of an impact report from actual monitoring data, neither party needs to spend hours on manual compilation. The time saved can be redirected towards site visits, learning conversations and genuine partnership.

Tools like Plinth take this further by combining several of these capabilities in a single platform. Plinth's AI-powered due diligence automatically checks applicant organisations against the Charity Commission register and governance documents, flagging potential issues for human review. Its grant impact dashboard pulls programme data -- attendance, outcomes, financial drawdowns -- into AI-generated funder reports tailored to each grant's requirements. Charities using Plinth can photograph a paper register and have AI extract the attendance data, or voice-record a conversation and receive a structured case study in return. These features directly address the capacity constraints that smaller organisations face, and Plinth offers a free tier to ensure accessibility.

For funders, the benefit is twofold: better data quality from grantees who are not overwhelmed by reporting demands, and more time for the relationship-building that trust-based philanthropy requires. For grantees, it means less time on administration and more time on delivery. The technology is not replacing trust -- it is creating the conditions in which trust can develop.

What should the sector watch for in 2026 and beyond?

Several trends are likely to accelerate through 2026. First, AI policy development is catching up with AI adoption: the proportion of charities with an AI policy tripled from 16% to 48% in a single year (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025). Expect this to continue as boards and regulators demand clearer governance frameworks.

Second, data portability will become a more prominent issue. As more funders publish through 360Giving and more charities use digital platforms for monitoring and reporting, the ability to move data between systems -- without re-entering it -- will become a practical expectation rather than an aspiration. Shared outcome libraries and standardised impact frameworks will help, though full interoperability remains some way off.

Third, the sustainability of current grantmaking levels is uncertain. The ACF Foundations in Focus 2025 report notes that many foundations increased spending "above sustainable levels", drawing on reserves or adopting total return approaches to meet urgent need during the cost of living crisis. If asset values remain flat in real terms, some foundations may need to reduce grant budgets in the medium term.

Fourth, the donor base continues to narrow. The proportion of 16--24-year-olds who donated fell from 52% in 2019 to 36% in 2024 (CAF UK Giving Report). Engaging younger donors -- through digital-first channels, creator partnerships and giving vehicles like DAFs -- will be essential to the long-term health of UK philanthropy.

Finally, the sector is moving towards what might be called "connected ecosystems": platforms that link application data, monitoring data, impact evidence and financial reporting into a coherent whole. This reduces duplication for charities that report to multiple funders and gives the sector a more complete picture of what is working. Our guide to reporting to multiple funders explores how organisations can manage this in practice.

FAQs

How much did UK trusts and foundations give in grants in 2023/24?

UK charitable trusts and foundations gave £8.2 billion in grants in 2023/24, a 12% increase on the previous year. Total UK grantmaking across all types of funder -- including government, the National Lottery and donor-advised funds -- exceeded £23 billion (UKGrantmaking 2025).

What proportion of UK charities are using AI?

76% of UK charities reported using AI tools in 2025, up from 61% in 2024, according to the Charity Digital Skills Report 2025. However, only 8% are using AI in service delivery, and 37% have taken no action to progress their AI use.

What is trust-based philanthropy?

Trust-based philanthropy is an approach to grantmaking that emphasises mutual accountability, transparency and reduced bureaucratic burden. In the UK, 170 funders have signed up to IVAR's Open and Trusting commitments, which include proportionate reporting, honest communication and a genuine partnership between funder and grantee.

What is the 360Giving Data Standard?

The 360Giving Data Standard is an open data format that allows UK funders to publish information about their grants in a consistent, machine-readable way. Over 300 funders have shared data using the standard, representing more than £300 billion in cumulative grants published. It enables charities, researchers and policymakers to analyse funding patterns across the sector.

Has public trust in charities changed recently?

Public trust in charities reached a ten-year high in 2024, with a score of 6.5 out of 10, making charities the second most trusted group in society after doctors (Charity Commission, 2024). The 2025 data shows trust remaining stable at similar levels.

Are donor-advised funds growing in the UK?

Yes. Contributions to UK donor-advised funds totalled £864.5 million in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% since 2020. Grants from DAFs to charities reached £787.7 million, a 22% increase year on year. Total charitable assets in DAFs now stand at £3.1 billion (NPT UK 2025 DAF Report).

What is the Foundation Practice Rating?

The Foundation Practice Rating is an annual independent assessment of 100 UK foundations on their transparency, accountability and diversity practices. Run by Giving Evidence, it evaluates foundations based on publicly available information and publishes results openly. The 2025 report showed gradual improvement, though diversity practices remain the weakest area across the sector.

How can smaller charities keep up with digital changes?

Smaller charities face real barriers: 68% are in the early stages of digital adoption, and finances are the top constraint for 69% of respondents. Practical steps include using platforms with free tiers (such as Plinth), adopting proportionate digital tools, and seeking capacity-building grants specifically for digital infrastructure. Funders can help by keeping application processes accessible and not requiring technology that smaller organisations cannot afford.

Recommended next pages

• AI for Funders: The Future of Grantmaking -- How artificial intelligence is changing the way foundations and philanthropists allocate funds
• Building Transparency into Grant Decisions -- Practical approaches to making funding decisions more open and accountable
• How to Reduce the Burden on Grant Applicants -- Strategies for proportionate application and reporting processes
• The Digital Divide in Grantmaking -- Why smaller organisations are disadvantaged and what funders can do about it
• Reporting to Multiple Funders -- How charities can streamline reporting when managing several grants simultaneously

Last updated: February 2026