Giving by high net worth individuals represented 60 per cent of the value of donations over £1 million ($1.56 million) made in the UK last year, according to Coutts.

The private bank said that individuals contributed £782 million of the £1.3 billion given in such donations in 2009/2010. Other donors include trusts and companies.

Less encouragingly, the report found that the number of donations exceeding £1 million declined 15 per cent in 2009/2010 compared with the year before, from 201 to 174.

As in previous years, the most frequent amount of money given to charity was exactly £1 million. One out of ten of these biggest gifts were larger than £10 million, and all “mega-gifts” were deposited into charitable trusts and foundations rather than given directly to operating charities, the bank said.

The annual Coutts Million Pound Donor Report was launched in 2008 and is carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Philanthropy, Humanitarianism and Social Justice at the University of Kent. ”In just four years, we have been able to track 757 gifts, totalling £6 billion,” said Maya Prabhu, head of UK philanthropy at Coutts.

The private bank also said that the new report showed that higher education remains the preferred cause, while international development saw the biggest surge in popularity.