Frequently Asked Questions

Around 100.

No, simply because there are more than the resources allow. We will assess:

1. All the foundations funding this project. They are all trying to learn and improve their own practice. This project is not about anybody hectoring anybody else. And:

2. A subset of other foundations. We will include all types of charitable grant-making foundation, e.g., endowed foundations, fund-raising foundations, family foundations, corporate foundations, community foundations. We will not include public grant-making agencies (e.g. local authorities or the research councils) because they have other accountability mechanisms. Our subset will be a mix of sizes (e.g. some of the largest, some mid-sized, some smaller ones). Our subset will be chosen at random from the dataset in UK Grantmaking including community foundations produced by 360Giving. We know that the money given is very skewed to the largest foundations (the UK’s largest 10 foundations give over a third of the total given by the UK’s largest 300 or so foundations; and giving by the Wellcome Trust alone is 12% of that) but we also know that the transactions that many charities experience cover the range of foundation sizes.

1. all the foundations funding this project. That is because this project is not about anybody pointing the finger at anybody else: the funding foundations are all being assessed as part of their work on improving. The foundations funding this project are listed on the partner’s page [1].
2. the five largest foundations in the UK (by grant budget). This is because they are so large relative to the overall size of grant-making: the UK’s ten largest foundations give over a third of the total given by the UK’s largest 300 or so foundations. Giving by the Wellcome Trust alone is 12% of that.
3. a stratified random subset of other foundations. We took the list of the UK’s largest foundations as published in the Foundation Giving Trends report 2019 published by the Association of Charitable Foundations[2], plus the UK’s community foundations listed by UK Community Foundations[3] for whom financial information is given. That gave 383 foundations. We then took a random sample which is a fifth from the top quintile (in terms of annual giving budget), a fifth from the second quintile, and so on.

[1] The foundations funding this project include the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and Power to Change, neither of which are registered charities. They are the sole two non-charities included.

[2] https://www.acf.org.uk/policy-practice/research-publications/

[3] https://www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/

Yes, by becoming a funder of the project. Please contact Danielle Walker Palmour on danielle.walker@friendsprovidentfoundation.org.uk if you are interested in joining the group of foundations funding the FPR. All funders are assessed as part of the FPR.

You can also opt-in, in any give year, without being a funder. Please contact Danielle Walker Palmour on danielle.walker@friendsprovidentfoundation.org.uk if you would like to opt-in and be assessed .

The Foundation Practice Rating is a cyclic project. Research begins in September, information webinars take place during October/November, the report is launched in March via an event. There is information about best practice shared throughout the year.

FPR is a rating not a ranking. All foundations can score well (or all score badly), and one can rise without another needing to fall. FPR assesses foundations’ absolute performance, not performance relative to each other.

The FPR takes the position of a prospective applicant and assesses absolute performance. It is important not to rank organisations against each other.

Please visit the funders page.

The answer is no. It is seeing how transparent an organisation is, meaning it looks at what is published, e.g. decision-making about grants.

The research and analysis are done by Giving Evidence, an independent research organisation, which has defined the criteria and created the research and scoring systems.

We published the Year One report in Welsh. For Year Two we invested in ReciteMe an app that offers accessibility and translation. You can translate the content into many different languages.

The FPR covers three ‘domains’:

• Diversity. The extent to which a foundation reports on the diversity of its staff and trustees, the extent to which a foundation reports on its plans to improve its diversity, and how well it caters for people who prefer/need to communicate in different ways, i.e. how accessible it is? (We do not look at issues such as how well foundations capture views from a diverse set of stakeholders to inform their work, nor the diversity of the work they fund.)
• Accountability. How can anyone who wants to examine the work or decisions of a foundation do so, and after the event, and make their voice heard?
• Transparency. Does a potential grantee have access to the information that it needs to be able to contact the foundation and decide whether to apply for funding in advance of any grant?

Check the scoring page for more details

The cost of the FPR in Year 1 (2021-2022) was £195,051, of which £85,627 were identified as set up costs.

Since then the FPR has cost an average of £145,00 per year.

Twelve funders have covered the costs of the project. We are always looking for more organisations to support this important work.