Community foundations awarded 5 star rating

Community foundations recognised for good-quality grant making

In the Grant Making Charity Foundations and Trusts Benchmarking Survey 2025, community foundations were rated 5th (and placed in the top 10 table) out of 49 UK charity foundations and trusts, selected by Charity Excellence.

In addition, community foundations were collectively voted as Runners Up in the People's Choice Award for the helpfulness, friendliness and effectiveness of team members across the UK.

A chance for grant makers to listen and improve

Arduous applications cost small charities and voluntary groups unnecessary time and resources they really don't have.  Community foundations are always exploring new areas to learn and improve upon to ensure grants are inclusive, impactful and transparent to all.

As well as shining a light on good practice, the survey highlighted some ongoing frustrations of general practices across the sector, including:

"We're happy to ask for one year, but lets stop pretending that all charitable activities are new/innovative.  If something is working and making a difference then why change it?"

"Funding for existing successful projects is increasingly hard to attain.  Everyone appears to want to fund something new."

The top three areas for suggested improvements were:

• More core funding 

• More multi-year funding 

• More funders providing feedback on submitted applications

UKCF is grateful to Charity Excellence for sharing the results, along with their methodology behind the 2025 survey and helpful advice for trusts and foundations to improve grant-making practices.  There are also useful links for any applicants looking for further information and guidance:

Find the survey results and recommendations here