A new study by Tearfund has found that the outreach of churches in their local communities leads to a social return of 28 times the level of investment.
The study found that every £1 invested in communities through local churches unlocked a further £7 of time and resources, generating £211 in social value – or a social return of 1:28.
The study was carried out by the State of Life consulting agency on behalf of Tearfund and surveyed the impact on people living in communities across Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zimbabwe that engaged with Tearfund’s church training and investment programmes.
The study received 8,000 survey responses showing that people in these communities were 62% more likely to invest in assets like animals, land, a house or business, than communities that did not have any church-led training or investment.
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