A man reads a book
The British Council receives some funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and other grants. We also receive revenue from managing international contracts and from our commercial businesses.
Funding
Our total turnover in 2007-08 was £551 million.
We earned the largest proportion of this (£232 million) from the sale of services (principally teaching English and administering examinations) and managing education and development contracts.
£189 million came to us in the form of a grant-in-aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with £7 million more in grants from other government departments.
The remainder was made up by agency funds (£122 million – paid out by us to, e.g., participants in the scholarship programmes we administer), sponsorship and matching funds and interest.
