Guidance for using The House of Good: Local calculator

The House of Good: Local is a social value calculator for churches, which has been developed by the National Churches Trust and State of Life.  

On this page you can find instructions for completing the calculator, including setting up your account, information about each section, and what to do when you've finished. 

You can also download the guidance as a PDF file.

Download the guidance

Setting up your account 

Take me to the social value calculator

The first thing you will need to do is enter some general information about your church. It may be more helpful for you to use tour church email address if you have one, so that the information can be more easily shared.  

Once you have done this, please click the red ‘Start’ button. You will be taken to a GDPR and Privacy Policy agreement form. The data generated will support the work of the National Churches Trust to keep church buildings open, in good repair and in use. Any personal information you provide will be held securely in accordance with our privacy policy and the Data Protection Act 2018.  

After you have clicked on the grey ‘I agree button’, you will be taken to a welcome page. To begin using the calculator, please click on the red ‘Add your activities’ button at the bottom of the page. There are nine pieces of information that you can add, listed as sections A to I.  

You can save the form and return to continue completing the calculator at any time. You will be sent an email with a link to your form, which is unique to your church. 

Completing The House of Good: Local 

Here you can find guidance on each section of the calculator. You can also download the data sheet, so that you can record each figure as you work it out. 

Download the data sheet

General information about your church 

Sections A to C are for general information about your church 

A. Total number of attendees at your main service on a typical Saturday/Sunday 

If your church holds more than one service, please enter the total for all the services. 

B. Average annual church expenditure 

This includes running costs like heating and electricity and any employment costs for staff or clergy. Do please include any regular building maintenance costs, but do not include any one-off building costs, such as major repairs or installing new facilities.  

We ask for your church’s annual expenditure because it helps balance the benefits you bring against the costs you incur. How much you spend represents your cost of investment. On the benefit side, this spending supports local businesses, creates jobs, and generates income for workers. Economists measure this economic contribution using Gross Value Added, which reflects how your church’s financial activity boosts the local economy.  

C. Total number of regular volunteers in a year (people who volunteer at least once a month)  

This can include people who volunteer for community activities that your church organises or who volunteer for community activities run by outside organisations, such as scout groups, regular music events or foodbanks. Include the number of people who volunteer in any capacity, not just those who help with community activities. This could be people who look after the building, who help with financial matters or who assist with religious activities or education.  

The same person should only be counted once. For example, if you have one volunteer who helps out in the garden and making hot drinks, count them under the activity they spend more time doing.  

Information that is specific to activities and support services that take place in your church or church hall 

Sections D to I are about activities and support services. Your church soes not have to organise or run all the activities – you can add information about any activities or support services that are run outside organisations that use your building for free or hire out space to use. This may involve speaking to people who use your church to run events and activities. Your church does not need to have all the activities that The House of Good: Local calculator measures for it to work.  

If you find it difficult to find the information, you can make the best estimate. 

D. Total number of people who participate in a choir or a music group regularly (at least once a month) 

This could be, for example, the number of people who are members of a choir, who play the organ, or members of the community who are musicians who use your church for rehearsals or concerts. 

E. Total number of people who attend drug/alcohol support sessions regularly (at least once a month) 

These could be run by an organisation such as Alcoholics Anonymous.  

F. Total number of people who use a food bank regularly (at least once a month)  

This could be a foodbank that your church runs or one run by an organisation such as the Trussell Trust.  

G. Total number of people who attend the mental health support sessions regularly (at least once a month) 

This could be any counselling run by outside organisations who use your church, or any activities you run to help people with issues such as bereavement, domestic abuse or loneliness.  

H. Total number of young people who attend a youth group regularly (at least once a month) 

This could be a youth club, sport groups or organisations such as Scouts or Brownies. Do not include activities for very young children, such as nursery schools or classes.  

I. Total number of people who attend a community group regularly (at least once a month) 

This final category covers any other sort of community activity that takes place in your church. This needs to be an activity that brings people together in an organised way and as part of a group. That could be for a warm space, a lunch club, toddler/parent groups, bereavement groups, cooking classes, advice groups, regular meetings of external clubs and societies or other social or community activities that your church organises.  

So, what is the value of your church? 

Once you have entered the information, click the red ‘Save and Review’ button to get to the summary page, which includes full details of the calculations and a pie chart.  

From here, you can click ‘Download PDF’ to get a document that shows the total annual social and economic value of your church. You will also see a summary of how the total figure was calculated.  

You also have a ‘Download CSV’ option, which will show a valuation in a spreadsheet of the information you have entered and showing the total annual social and economic value of your church. This is information that you are able to edit.

While State of Life provides assurance of The House of Good: Local, it is for the people filling out the forms to take responsibility for their ‘inputs’ to the model and the use of their reports.

What to do with the information 

• You could tell your congregation about it so that they are aware of the contribution the church makes to the local community or use it as part of your annual report to the parish.  
• You could share the information with your denomination, other local churches and with your local council or MP, to demonstrate the impact of your church locally.
• You may also find it useful for fundraising purposes, for example you can include this in applications to funders or to use in fundraising campaigns at your church.
• The information could also make a positive story online. You could consider sharing it with a local journalist or on your social media account.

However you use the information, we hope this helps your place of worship to be able to demonstrate its importance to the local community.