The Charity Retail Association will produce a social value toolkit to help its members demonstrate the wider impact of charity shops.

Five charities, including the British Heart Foundation, have been taking part in a pilot scheme since last year. The pilot will end this spring and the CRA hopes to use the findings to help it produce a social value toolkit in the summer. 

Participants are collecting data about how charity shops are being used to raise the charity’s overall profile, direct people to the charity’s services, build relationships with local businesses and provide volunteer opportunities, alongside their traditional fundraising role.

The other charities that are involved in the first stage of the project are PDSA, Shaw Trust, Clic Sargent and the Trussell Trust.

A CRA spokesman said that often charity shops already do these things “but they don’t keep a record of it” and that in many cases there is “no national coordination”.

The project was started in response to a recommendation in Giving Something Back, which was published by Demos in 2013.