The public registers we read
Last checked 25 September 2026
We read six public registers: to find the funders a charity could approach, and to check the charities we write to. This page names each one in full: who publishes it, what it holds, what we take from it and why, and the terms under which we may reuse it.
What we build from them stays with us. We do not publish it, and we never sell it.
Where "around 55,000 funders" comes from
Two of the six registers give the number. On 25 September 2026, 49,121 charities on the Register of Charities for England and Wales said they make grants to other organisations. On the Scottish Charity Register, 5,649 said the same. Together, 54,770. We round it because both registers change every day.
What the number counts. Charities that tell their regulator they give grants. Some are grant-making trusts; others run their own work and give some money away as well. A charity registered in both countries may be counted twice.
The charity registers, named in full
| What it holds | What we take, and why | How often we read it | Where | Reuse terms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Register of Charities for England and WalesThe Charity Commission for England and Wales | every registered charity in England and Wales, with its number, latest income, what it does and how, and the contact details it gives the public. | the charities that say they make grants, so we know who funds what; and the name, income and public contact details of charities we may write to. | the Commission publishes a new file every day; we take it every three days. | register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/register/full-register-download | Open Government Licence v3.0. |
| Scottish Charity RegisterOffice of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) | every charity registered in Scotland, with its number, income, purposes, activities and website. | the charities that say they make grants to organisations, so we know who funds what; and the number and income of Scottish charities already on our own records, so our figures are the register's. | OSCR updates it every day; we take it every three days. | oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/download-the-scottish-charity-register | Open Government Licence v3.0, and OSCR's own terms: no direct marketing, and no list that claims to be the register. |
| The register of companiesCompanies House | every company in the UK, with its number, its status and what it has filed. | one fact, whether a charity that is also a company is still active, or has been dissolved or gone into liquidation, so we can stop before writing to one that has closed. | each time we check an organisation before we write to it. | find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk | not confirmed. The register's own pages state no licence, and we will not guess one. |
The funding registers, named in full
| What it holds | What we take, and why | How often we read it | Where | Reuse terms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 360Giving data, through GrantNav360Giving, from data each funder publishes | grants UK funders have already made: who gave, to whom, how much and when. On 25 September 2026, 887 datasets from 298 publishers. | past grants, to learn what each funder really funds and at what size. It is a record of past awards, never a list of open funding. | every three months. | grantnav.threesixtygiving.org | each funder picks its own licence. Of the 887 datasets, 706 use CC BY 4.0, 123 the Open Government Licence v3.0, 36 CC BY-SA 4.0 and 22 CC0 1.0. |
| Find a GrantGovernment Grants Management Function, Cabinet Office | open UK government grant schemes, with who can apply, the deadline and how to apply. | the open schemes a charity could apply for, with their rules and deadlines, to put in front of the charities they fit. | last read in full on 24 August 2026. | find-government-grants.service.gov.uk | most content is Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Logos, crests and some listed content are excluded. |
| Funding finderUK Research and Innovation (UKRI) | open research and innovation funding calls from UKRI's councils. On 25 September 2026, it listed 138. | which calls are open, for charities that carry out research. So far we have counted the calls; we have not copied any. | counted on 19 August 2026. Not yet read in full. | ukri.org/opportunity | most of UKRI's website is under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0. We do not copy or publish its text. |
The credit each licence asks for
- Register of Charities for England and Wales. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Scottish Charity Register. © Crown Copyright and database right 2026. Contains information from the Scottish Charity Register supplied by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.
- 360Giving data, through GrantNav. Source: 360Giving Data Registry, registry.threesixtygiving.org, read 25 September 2026: 887 datasets published by 298 organisations. Each dataset is licensed by its own publisher under CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC0 1.0 or the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is data on grants UK funders have already made, not a list of open funding.
- Find a Grant. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Funding finder. UK Research and Innovation, ukri.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
- The register of companies. Source: Companies House.
What we never do with them
- We do not publish what we build. Our list of funders, our notes on each one and our matches stay inside the agency.
- We never sell it, and we never give it away.
- We never republish a register as our own. If you want the data, the links above take you to the people who keep it.
- We never buy lists of people. Every contact detail we use to write to someone comes from a register above or from that organisation's own website.
If a register names you
Some registers name people. The charity registers publish a contact address for each charity, and a few 360Giving records name the person a grant was paid to.
If your details reached us from one of these registers, you can ask us, free of charge, what we hold and which register it came from. You can also ask us to correct it, delete it, or stop writing to you. Email marc@thestart.agency and we will answer within one month.
If the register itself is wrong, only its publisher can change it. We will tell you which one to contact. Our privacy notice sets out all your rights in full.