The number of charitable donations valued at £1m and over last year reached its highest level since before the financial crisis, according to a new report.

Coutts’s research found 166 donors made 355 charitable donations worth £1m or more in 2015, with a total value of £1.83bn. This represents a year-on-year increase of 19 per cent in the number of donations and an increase of 17 per cent in overall value.

There were 267 distinct recipients of million-pound gifts, up from 243 the previous year.

Foundations accounted for over half the total value of million-pound gifts, increasing their share to 55 per cent compared with 51 per cent in 2014.

Individuals and corporations both increased the amount they gave in 2015, but as a proportion of the overall total corporations’ share of gifts declined slightly from 23 per cent to 20 per cent and individuals from 25 per cent to 24 per cent.

The value of individual donations worth more than US $1m more than trebled year-on-year across the international regions covered by the research. The Coutts Million Dollar Donors Report found there were 2,197 donations worth a combined $56bn across the UK, USA and Middle East (Gulf Cooperation Council).

Foundations received the greatest portion of the total value of donations, and these figures were boosted by a $32bn pledge from a donor in the Middle East.

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