Embarking on the Impact Measurement Journey: How Medibank is Evolving Strategic Community Health Impact
The Motivation
For over a decade, Medibank has been a proud B4SI member, demonstrating its long-standing commitment to improving community health. Using the B4SI Framework, Medibank has been reporting on both the resources invested and the tangible outputs it delivers to communities.
However, in the past year, the organisation has taken steps to refine its approach — advancing its measurement to evidence meaningful change in the lives of its beneficiaries — by linking community investments and outputs to the real-life impacts of its programmes.
The Action
Medibank has taken a strategic step forward in impact measurement in a flagship partnership with Flying Fox. The programme supports young people with disabilities to participate in inclusive social connection initiatives, aiming to create meaningful connections that help reduce loneliness and build stronger, more inclusive communities.
Guided by the B4SI Framework, Medibank identified meaningful indicators to measure the positive impact of the Flying Fox hangout programme on participants’ lives. With independent implementation supported by B4SI’s reviews and feedback, Medibank established a structured, evidence-based approach to track change, aligned with clear community investment areas.
The B4SI Impact Toolkit helps position Medibank to further refine its methodology by defining metrics for diverse beneficiaries, capturing data, and aggregating outcomes across initiatives. This helps them clearly demonstrate the community-level impact directly linked to their community investments while strengthening accountability, strategic decision-making, and the visibility of their impact.
The Impact
Through B4SI’s impact categories, Medibank identified indicators that evidence meaningful changes experienced by participants. Data collected via phone interviews revealed reduced feelings of loneliness and stronger social connections—directly attributable to Medibank’s support.
These results demonstrate the impact of their investment and help Medibank to share compelling data with stakeholder groups about the difference such an investment can make.
By enhancing community social connection to reduce loneliness as part of their 10-year commitment, while elevating their reporting approach, Medibank is helping deliver a win–win for society and for business: measurable societal impact that better demonstrates the effectiveness of their investments.
“Using B4SI’s framework has helped us measure the change our partnership with Flying Fox makes. We can now share a clearer, evidence-based story of how our contribution impacts young people’s social connection with our stakeholders.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
LINK CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPACT:
Add value to the business by tracking investments to impacts, creating visibility into whether the intended change actually occurred.
ELEVATE SOCIAL IMPACT COMMUNICATION:
Build structured impact measurement to show the bigger picture to internal and external stakeholders.
STRENGTHEN YOUR INVESTMENT APPROACH:
Review impact areas, define metrics and track progress to build a stronger business case for investments.