Components of the Economic Halo Effect
Partners conducted in-depth interviews with congregational leaders of 87 United Methodist churches in rural North Carolina . More details on the research methodology are provided in Appendix A .
The study found that the average UMC congregation made an annual contribution to the local economy valued at $ 735,800 . There were no statistically significant differences ( p =. 08 ) in annual economic contribution between churches in mixed rural counties and churches in rural counties .
These calculations , however , do include the presence of outliers , i . e . churches that have either much larger or much smaller economic contributions than most of the other churches in the sample . One way to correct for these extreme values is to drop the highest and lowest docile of churches and only count the middle 80 %. Calculated this way , the sample would include 69 congregations , with a mean economic value of $ 488,598 annually .
Congregations benefit their communities in many different ways . These benefits were grouped in six broad categories :
Components of Economic Halo
$ 735,800
Average annual Economic Halo value per congregation
$ 109,275 Community Serving Progams ( 15 %)
$ 9,719 Open Space ( 1 %)
$ 186,095 Direct Spending ( 25 %)
• Direct spending , operational , program and capital spending
• Education & childcare , the value of day care programs
• Magnet effect , spending by visitors coming to the individual church
• Individual impact , outreach to individuals and families that help them overcome obstacles , be cared for , or be part of a community
• Community serving programs , including the value of volunteer time for community programs and the value of space that is shared
• Outdoor recreation space used by the community
$ 116,764
Individual Impact ( 16 %)
$ 140,738 Magnet Effect ( 20 %)
$ 165,208
Education ( 22 %)
Direct spending ( 25 % of the total ) had the largest economic value , followed closely by education & childcare ( 22 %). The magnet effect accounted for 20 % of the total , followed by individual impact ( 16 %) and community serving programs ( 15 %). The value of recreation space accounted for a small percentage of the average congregational economic contribution ( 1 %).
19