Australia Post is Australia’s premier postal and parcel service provider. With an extensive network, we play a vital role in connecting people and businesses, both locally and internationally. Our 2025 Sustainability Roadmap is driven by our purpose of delivering a better tomorrow and is based on six initiatives to create positive social, environmental, and economic outcomes.

We have been members of the B4SI Network for 14 years and have evolved our approach to measuring and reporting social investments in that time. In the last 12 months, we’ve taken steps to align our community partners with our strategic approach. Focusing on our flagship partnership with Beyond Blue (one of Australia’s most well-known, trusted, and visited mental health organisations), we wanted to develop a clear understanding of the impact of two initiatives, Beyond Blue’s Community Events Program and Beyond Blue’s Speakers Program. The Community Events Program sees ‘Buddy’, Beyond Blue’s community van and Beyond Blue representatives attend community events to raise awareness about mental health and wellbeing, and the Speakers Program involves volunteer speakers with lived experience of a mental health condition share their stories of hope and recovery with workplaces, schools and community groups across the country. Both initiatives aim to connect more people in Australia with mental health information, aligning with Australia Post’s strategic goal to connect people to mental health information and services, and each other, to support staying mentally well. You can find a replica Australia Post letter box at Beyond Blue’s community van, encouraging people to connect with their loved ones. While the inputs and outputs of each program were well-measured, there was less of an understanding and interrogation of the impacts that the projects were having on their intended beneficiaries.

We were delighted to work with B4SI to assess the Beyond Blue programs and determine opportunities for impact measurement. The B4SI team facilitated engaging workshops with our team and our Beyond Blue colleagues. The workshops involved alignment between program intent, community needs, and establishing measurable outcomes. The process laid the foundation for clear impact evaluation.

B4SI helped Australia Post and Beyond Blue develop achievable impact indices and metrics to measure and report on the change the programs were having on the ability of individuals to talk about mental health and find mental health resources. The workshops also enabled us to determine how these impact indicators were to be measured, as well as providing us with a realistic delegation of the responsibilities of each party for data collection. Beyond Blue expressed enthusiasm to use the robust impact metrics developed and had a clear idea of how they aligned to Australia Post’s social strategy. We believe the metrics help us tell a good story for how Australia Post and Beyond Blue are working together to support mental health & wellbeing in communities across Australia.

• Jessie Downs, Community Relations & Partnerships Manager for Australia Post