The Impetus Trust has announced an income growth of 31 per cent for charities in its investment portfolio this year.

The Trust published the news in its 2009/10 impact results report this month. The report also revealed a 40 per cent growth in the amount of people helped by the 13 charities active in the programme.

The charities have bucked the sector trend since the recession, with incomes of more than eight times the sector average.

The Trust said that over 250,000 people have benefited from the work of the 16 charities and social enterprises which have been part of the portfolio since its inception.

The statistics were calculated using data from the NCVO's UK Voluntary Sector Almanacs from 2006 to 2010.

Chief executive of Impetus, Daniela Barone Soares said: “These results underpin our view that venture philanthropy has a very important role to play in the emerging jigsaw of the Big Society, taking small and medium sized charities and social enterprises and scaling them up to a size and stability where they can deliver significantly more to society.”

The Trust provides packages of unrestricted funding, bespoke advice and hands on management for charities that it chooses to support and recently invested £1.7m in a project to reduce the national reoffending rate. Its own income also doubled in 2009/10 to £3.8m

Just 11 per cent of charities questioned in a You Gov poll said that they estimated their income to double in the next five years.