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  • 21 Jul 2014

Three sixty degree giving

An initiative to encourage openness in UK philanthropy launches today at an event at NESTA. ‘360 degree giving’ has developed a common standard for reporting on grants so that useful data can be collated from across the sector to give a fuller picture of who gave funding to whom, for which activities, and for how much. Making this information available and easy to access will enable better grant-making by identifying gaps in provision and aiding funding decisions. It will also make the process of grant-making more transparent.

The initiative’s aim is that in five years, 80 per cent of UK grants, or 50 per cent by grant volume, will be reported according to the common standard.

The 360 degree giving campaign has drawn inspiration from work to standardise reporting on international aid, which the UK Department for International Development has been pivotal in developing. Progress in this field has enabled international aid donors, charities and NGOs to understand in much more detail the impact of their funding. It is hoped similar progress can be made for flows of philanthropic funding within the UK.

PHF is announcing its backing of the aims of the initiative by publishing grant-making data from the last financial year according to the common standard, as a downloadable spreadsheet (.xls). We have always reported our grant-making in full through our website and Yearbooks, but this is the first time we have shared the data in these accessible formats, making it easy to analyse by researchers or other funders.

PHF Director of Finance and Resources Lucy Palfreyman commented: “We have been interested in greater openness in grant-making for some time and we are pleased to be part of the first wave of UK grant-makers to make the ‘360 giving pledge’.”