The UK economic outlook may still be uncertain but according to figures from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), philanthropic activity is beginning to rise.

In the first quarter of 2010 The Charities Aid Foundation, one of the UK's biggest providers of charitable trusts, opened 51 new Charitable Trust Accounts with a total of £70million in donations.

In the same period in 2009 donors put £20million into new CAF Trust Accounts.

The charity is now opening as many accounts each month as it was in early 2008 before the recession began.

Mike Packham, head of private clients at the Charities Aid Foundation, commented: "During the recession committed donors didn't stop giving but understandably many had less funds to put into trusts and if people were thinking about opening a trust they wanted to wait until their personal finances had improved, or were more certain.

"It looks like we are now seeing those people making the major commitments to philanthropy that they have been planning for some time. Timing couldn't be better because many charities are expecting this coming year to be difficult."

In March 2010 payments to charities from CAF Charitable Trust Accounts totalled more than £18 million, over three times the amount distributed in March 2009.

CAF manages over 2,600 Charitable Trusts.

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