The House of Good: Local

The creation of the calculator has been made possible thanks to the generosity of the Benefact Trust

Capture and showcase the social and economic value your church brings to its community in under 30 minutes by using our free online tool.

Take me to the calculator

How you can use the tool

By using this tool, you can highlight the crucial role your church plays in supporting local people as well as strengthen your case for fundraising, motivate volunteers, and contribute to the future planning of your church's mission.

The calculator works out the social, economic and wellbeing value of your church by using information taken from nine questions about activities at your building. Once you have the data, you should be able to complete The House of Good: Local calculator in under 30 minutes.

If you have any questions or need any help with the calculator, get in touch with us at houseofgood@nationalchurchestrust.org

A guide on how to use the calculator

People laughing over a cup of tea — AndySillett

Guidance to help you

We have created a step-by-step guide to help you answer the nine questions needed to get your results. You can either follow on the webpage or download our PDF.

Hear from churches that have found the calculator useful

A brick church — ©Oakridge Baptist Church

Oakridge Baptist Church, Buckinghamshire

“Having been part of the trial, I can recommend that other Churches make the most of The House of Good: Local calculator. It’s easy to use and a very useful tool in identifying the added value in financial terms especially, that we provide to our community. The figures are surprising, and not only an encouragement to the fellowship and volunteers; but may also be useful for increasing a church’s profile, fundraising, and ultimately policy change for the good.”

Coventry Methodist Central Hall, West Midlands

“Thanks to the National Churches Trust for the social value indicator. This tool was easy to use and enabled us to assess our impact, which is significant! Having worked in churches for many years, we felt that our value was often seriously underestimated. Now we can show our value using financial language, which sometimes seems to be the best language to communicate with some of our partners and supporters.”

The methodology

The House of Good: Local is built on a rigorous economic methodology. It works by taking the information and inputs you provide, multiplying them by established unit values, and converting them into a monetary equivalent. These unit values were first developed in the original The House of Good, and The House of Good: The value of music and community groups studies, where researchers at State of Life conducted robust economic analyses using national survey datasets and a wellbeing-based approach endorsed in HM Treasury’s Green Book. Since then, these values have been adjusted for inflation to remain current. For further details on the methodology behind The House of Good: Local, please refer to The House of Good studies and The House of Good: Local guidance.