Tearfund’s impact statements

Transforming Communities is not about giving short-term aid. It’s about equipping local churches to lead long-term change. Through Transforming Communities training, we equip local churches to work with the community to identify resources as well as challenges, and develop lasting solutions like building water points, schools, or developing sustainable businesses.

By April 2025, Tearfund was working with more than 57,000 churches around the world.

In our Local church, lasting transformation study, we asked Transforming Communities facilitators in eight countries what new or improved assets they have in their community as a result of Transforming Communities. Transforming Communities facilitators told us that where training had taken place:

• 34 per cent of communities reported having a new or improved road.
• 33 per cent of communities reported having new or improved water access.
• 31 per cent of communities reported having a new or improved school.
• 15 per cent of communities reported having a new or improved health clinic.

We multiplied these percentages by the number of churches involved in Transforming Communities around the world.

When churches start their journey with Transforming Communities, they start meeting the needs they see in their community.

Churches and communities work together to raise resources and gather volunteers for projects that address needs and benefit the wider community. People are more likely to engage in advocacy and community projects such as mutual support groups, saving schemes and sharing resources to benefit the wider community.

Across the 486 communities in the Local church, lasting transformation study, eight out of ten Transforming Communities facilitators (82 per cent) reported that their communities have new or improved community assets after participating in Transforming Communities training, such as roads, schools, health clinics and access to clean water.

The Active Churches report also demonstrates increased economic resilience across whole communities, as a result of restored relationships. Despite challenging circumstances, communities continued or increased their investment in community projects and assets.

The people we interviewed told us that the top three reasons that communities had more resources are: increased community engagement in advocacy, more outworking of a whole-life response, and higher levels of community mindedness. This describes some of the many benefits of the Transforming Communities process.

Find out more about how churches in the Transforming Communities programme are meeting the community’s needs by watching this video from our Practice what you pray campaign.

People have more hope and better wellbeing as a result of Transforming Communities:

• Our evidence shows that Transforming Communities builds hope and emotional resilience, which gives people greater confidence, self-esteem and belief in their own abilities, as well as improving their overall sense of wellbeing.
• Life satisfaction, a measure of people’s overall wellbeing, was 17 per cent higher where Transforming Communities was taking place.
• Where Transforming Communities is taking place, 92 per cent of people feel able to create positive change in their own life, and this is higher than in communities which have not yet started the training. People are also 18 per cent more likely to believe that they will be better off in a year’s time, a measure of hope for the future, compared to places without the Transforming Communities programme. Hope for the future had increased for 85 per cent of people interviewed in the Active Churches study.
• Alongside increased hope, Transforming Communities helps people to feel like they belong in their communities. The Local church, lasting transformation study found that people were 12 per cent more likely to feel like they belonged to their community where Transforming Communities training had taken place. They were also 23 per cent more likely to feel like people would be there for them if they needed support. This leads to greater cohesion and collaboration in communities.

Tearfund’s mission is to follow Jesus where the need is greatest, and to partner with local churches to help people lift themselves out of poverty. This is how Transforming Communities is changing lives!

People feel more confident in their abilities and resilient in the face of challenges:

• In our Local churches, lasting transformation study, 83 per cent of people feel confident to face unexpected events, where Transforming Communities is taking place. They are 18 per cent more likely to feel like this than people not in Transforming Communities.
• In the Active Churches study, 83 per cent of people mentioned Transforming Communities as something that improved their sense of self-worth and were more likely to express new ideas, have a sense of purpose and develop the ability to withstand future difficulties than those who did not take part in Transforming Communities.

Churches invest their own resources to transform their community:

• Tearfund invests in Transforming Communities by making grants to partners, which go towards training and mentoring facilitators and investing in their ongoing learning through communities of practice and refresher training.
• Tearfund also invests in Transforming Communities through staff time – colleagues in the country and regional teams who support Transforming Communities – and that represents a cost to Tearfund.
• Facilitators, churches and communities engaged in Transforming Communities make their own substantial contribution. For facilitators, that consists of considerable amounts of time spent facilitating and preparing for Transforming Communities activities, like Bible studies. For church and community members, that consists of resources they mobilise for initiatives, whether that’s a school scholarship scheme, new church building or an improved road.
• Through the Local church, lasting transformation study we’ve put a monetary value on these contributions. On average these financial and in-kind contributions (like food and building materials) plus volunteer hours are worth between £2,183 and £3,712 per community, per year. This enables us to calculate that for every £1 invested in Transforming Communities by Tearfund, facilitators and communities have mobilised £7 worth of time and resources.

The work of churches creates high social returns and is great value:

• The Local church, lasting transformation study puts a monetary value on the impact of Transforming Communities by using a social value measurement methodology called the WELLBY. The WELLBY uses data about the impact of Transforming Communities on people’s life satisfaction. Our study found that people living in communities where Transforming Communities is taking place are 17 per cent more satisfied with their lives than people living in communities where Transforming Communities is not yet taking place.
• The WELLBY takes that difference and converts it into a monetary value. This enables us to know that for every £1 invested in Transforming Communities by Tearfund, which is combined with £7 worth of resources mobilised by communities, up to £154 worth of social value is created, or £154 worth of impact on people’s life satisfaction.
• This is equivalent to a social return of 1:21. So, all the costs together (Tearfund’s investment, facilitator’s time and community contribution) are outweighed by the positive impact of Transforming Communities by 21 times.
• You may notice a slight mismatch in these ratios. This is due to the relationship between the midpoints of the ratios for upper and lower estimates used. The same underlying cost and benefit values are used in all these calculations. This means that every £32 invested in Transforming Communities helps a community unlock £224 worth of time and resources, and together this creates over £4,900 of social value.

Find out more about how we converted the WELLBY method.

The efforts of churches in the Transforming Communities programme lead to increased income and economic resilience:

• Transforming Communities develops self-sufficiency through Bible studies which challenge church and community members’ attitudes about themselves and their circumstances, supporting them to harness the resources at their disposal. As a result, communities experience greater economic resilience.
• Compared to communities where Transforming Communities has not yet taken place, people in communities with the Transforming Communities training are 30 per cent more likely to have earned more or the same as the previous year. They also have a more positive perception of their future as 82 per cent believe they will be better off in a year’s time.
• The Active Churches study found a similar result: 40 per cent of people interviewed said that their income and purchasing power had increased and a quarter reported that it had stayed the same while taking part in Transforming Communities.
• Stable or rising incomes translate into real differences for wellbeing. The Local church, lasting transformation study found that, compared to communities that have not started the programme, people in places where Transforming Communities is taking place are 20 per cent less likely to report that their family has gone without enough food and ten per cent less likely that their family has missed school due to costs in the last year. They are also less likely to report that their family has gone without medicine in the last year.