‘Below the Radar’: understanding some of the UK’s smallest charities

Uncovering grants to grassroots organisations

Small, informal, and grassroots groups are the backbone of our communities, yet they often remain invisible in official statistics. Our research report, Below the Radar 2, uses open grants data to illuminate the vital role of these organisations and explore the funding that supports them.

Commissioned by Local Trust and authored by 360Giving, this October 2025 report builds on a decade of research to provide a richer picture of grant funding to grassroots organisations.

This work was undertaken as part of a wider project with IVAR exploring what is needed to shift funders’ perspectives so that they embed the principles of Big Local – long-term, resident-led funding – into their grant-making practices. A summary report sharing findings of this wider work will be launched later this year.

Why This Research Matters

“Below the Radar” organisations are often volunteer-led and lack formal registration, but they provide essential public benefits. By bringing them into the spotlight, we can help funders develop more effective strategies to support the communities where it is needed most.

Key Findings

• A Thriving Sector: We identified over 21,000 Below the Radar groups that received grants between 2020 and 2024.
• Essential Funding: While these grants represent less than 0.1% of total awarded amounts, they provide approximately £123 million in critical support for hyperlocal activities.
• Leading Funders: A small number of major funders, including the National Lottery Community Fund, the Co-operative Group, and Sport England, lead the way in funding Below the Radar and registered grassroots organisations, often with dedicated small grants programmes, with Community Foundations also playing a vital role.
• Community Impact: The most commonly funded activities for these groups are green spaces, arts and culture, and young people, with a high volume of grants supporting local events and community activities, enhancing social cohesion and community wellbeing.
• Reaching Deprived Areas: Below the Radar organisations are more likely to be receiving grants in more deprived areas (as per the Index of Multiple Deprivation). In contrast, registered grassroots organisations are less likely to be active in the most deprived areas, suggesting potential disparities in social capital and community infrastructure and space.

Explore the Data

We believe in the value of data sharing to provide new insights into civil society. You can explore the underlying dataset through our open tools for your own analysis.

GrantNav for full data available including data published since the report launch

Our Recommendations

We encourage funders to monitor changes to grant thresholds, criteria and processes to ensure informal groups are not unintentionally falling out of portfolios. We also encourage national funders to consider the opportunities that partnering with place-based funders and local sector infrastructure could bring to improve local knowledge and relevance, accessibility and reach of programmes. 

Finally, we call for more funders to publish open data and improve the quality of existing records to better support the grassroots sector.

2020 Report

The previous report, funded by Local Trust and carried out by 360Giving and NCVO, is also available, Below the Radar 2020, alongside a blog including the data on how we discovered some of the UK’s smallest charities.