Charities around the world expect 2011 to bring increased voluntary income and investment in fundraising, according to a global annual report released yesterday.

A survey of 3,000 organisations in ten countries has found that all expect total income to increase in 2011, and all bar Germany predict voluntary income will rise next year also.

The State of the Not-for-Profit Industry (SONI) report, produced by Blackbaud and presented at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands, found that all also expected to see a rise in expenditure in the near future.

All the countries surveyed, except for the Netherlands, predicted they would invest more in fundraiser numbers, potentially a response to widespread pessimism, in Europe particularly, about the fall in government support.

The UK was particularly optimistic about the possibility to grow major giving, with 15 per cent expecting year-on-year growth in that area. Europe-wide, major donors and corporate partnerships were areas where charities were expecting to see income rise in 2011 on 2010 levels.

India was a particularly optimistic respondent, although Neelam Kahikjani, chief executive of the Resource Alliance, suggested that this was potentially because the market is so nascent “everything will look like growth.”

But, she added that there is a major shift in the country, which is now positioning itself as a donor country.

For a fuller analysis of the results of SONI, look out for the upcoming November issue of Fundraising magazine.