High net worth giving reaches £11.3 billion in 2024
In 2020, in the depths of the COVID pandemic, we started a programme of research to understand whether high-net-worth giving was increasing or decreasing in response to the crisis.
We have kept that research going. In 2025, it has giving us a valuable perspective on the significance of private wealth to public good.
Since 2020, high-net-worth giving has had an average annual growth rate of 18%, adjusted for inflation, to reach £11.3 billion in 2024.
The results show that high-net-worth individuals, individuals with more than £1 million held in cash and investments, are a significant and growing donor segment for the charity sector.
| Year | Total HNW giving |
| 2020 | £8.3 billion |
| 2021 | £15.7 billion |
| 2022 | £7.0 billion |
| 2023 | £11.1 billion |
| 2024 | £11.3 billion |
The average annual growth rate is 18% after adjusting for inflation,
And 24% unadjusted.
The amount is not accounted for in other data sets on giving because of the difficult nature of researching the high-net-worth population.
Real world impact
These results are important to charity fundraisers, policy makers, the philanthropy sector, the wealth advisory profession, and the high-net-worth donor community.
Given the difficult economic environment, charities need to target their fundraising efforts in constituencies where there is growth. Policy makers need to understand the potential for communities from enabling more philanthropic funding to flow.
Wealth advisers can recognise the role philanthropy plays in their clients’ decisions about their finances and investments. And high-net-worth donors themselves can feel confident that they are not alone; their giving and their efforts to encourage others to give are both valuable and valued.
This five-year view shows that high-net-worth individuals are increasingly seeking ways to contribute to wider society, beyond their role as taxpayers, and there is an opportunity to maximise that contribution by supporting wealth holders to give consistently and strategically for greater social or environmental impact.
Progress towards clearer insight on HNW giving
This five-year view of high-net-worth giving in the UK is the result of a collaborative effort over several years.
In 2023, Beacon partnered with Savanta and Cathy Pharoah, Visiting Professor of Charity Funding at Bayes Business School in 2023, to consider whether a methodology to estimate high-net-worth giving could be drawn from existing data sets.
The research was supported by a Working Group of academics and data experts and identified a series of recommendations to improve understanding in this field.
In 2025, with support from Pears Foundation and Barclays Private Bank, and in collaboration with New Philanthropy Capital and Remember a Charity, we have been able to implement a number of those recommendations and refine the methodology. The Working Group has also continued its support.
Not only has this collective effort enabled us to achieve more robust estimates for high-net-worth giving over the last five years, we have also been able to undertake survey-based insight with a sample of 500 high-net-worth individuals to gain a deeper understanding of how their attitudes and approaches to giving have evolved over this period.
The Modern Philanthropist
The results of this insight have been published by Barclays Private Bank in a report entitled The Modern Philanthropist. The findings underscore that high-net-worth individuals are not only giving more than they did five years ago, they are also giving more thoughtfully and in more structured ways.
The estimates for total high-net-worth giving are a key part of this report.
For those who are interested to learn more about the methods we have used to achieve our estimates for high-net-worth giving, we have published a detailed technical report.
By identifying the size of the prize, we hope to encourage others to build the field of research into high-net-worth giving in the UK. Doing so will enable better strategic planning, more effective advocacy, greater recognition of the critical role philanthropy plays in society – and, most importantly, spur the growth of UK philanthropy towards public causes that matter to all of us.
High-net worth giving in the UK: The giving of the UK’s millionaire population, a five year overview
Author(s)
Cathy Pharoah, Cath Dovey, Vivek Thaker
Year
2025
High-net-worth giving in the UK: Modelling the giving of the UK’s millionaire population, a five year overview – Presentation slides
Author(s)
Cathy Pharoah, Cath Dovey, Vivek Thaker
Year
2025
Scoping the high net worth philanthropy market
Author(s)
Cathy Pharoah, Cath Dovey, Tom McKenzie, Vivek Thaker
Year