Social Impact Reports

We exist to make business possible for all women and to #Back Her Brilliance. Global Sisters releases an annual report, documenting the social impact we have had over the last 12 months and the progress in achieving our vision and mission.

The annual Social Impact Report tells the story of our growth, the effectiveness of our model and the change we are seeing in women’s lives and communities across Australia. The reports are written for our supporters, community and most importantly our Sisters.

The inaugural 2019 report documents our social impact framework, methodology and initial impact findings. The 2020 report provides an update on the evolution of our strategy and model, which in turn impacted the evolution of our social impact framework. It documents this and our social impact findings for the previous year.

Our Impact
2024

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Impact 2023-24

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Impact 2023

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Impact 2022

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Impact 2021

This is a snapshot of the full report which is available on request at hello@globalsisters.org.

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Impact 2020

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Independent Evaluations:
Department of Social Services (DSS)

Outcome and Impact Measurement Case Studies by Urbis Consulting

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Case Study 1

Unlocking women’s economic potential

New approach to outcome and impact measurement.

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Case Study 2

Impact reporting with impact

Social impact reporting approaches.

Case Study 3

Telling the big picture story

Reporting longer-term outcomes.

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Case Study 4

Measuring up for growth

Growth snapshot from 2019-2022.

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Our Impact Methodology

Global Sisters: Pro Women Impact Measurement with a gender lens

At Global Sisters, impact measurement is not just about data — it’s about women owning their lives and economic futures and elevating their voices and solutions to economic insecurity.

Our Difference

What makes the Global Sisters methodology unique is our reimagined, pro-women frameworks and a gender intersectional lens. Global Sisters’ impact measurement sees, values, and elevates women’s lived experience. It is feminist in design, participatory in practice, and systemic in ambition. We measure not only what women achieve through micro business but also how the world changes around them when women are enabled to succeed.

Our pro-women framework recognises that impact measurement was designed by white male academics and policy advisors in the US in the 1970s, and it needed to be radically reimagined for Global Sisters now and into the future. The Global Sisters’ impact measurement methodology is both robust and practically applied to progressing our mission of women’s economic security.

  • Co-designed with Sisters, and constantly evolving through their participation and insights.
  • Applies a robust, longitudinal framework.
  • Includes a gender lens and intersectionality to the analysis.
  • Practically applied in sharing individual progress back to Sisters, improving programs and informing the design of systems change initiatives.

The Global Sisters framework is not about collecting data “about a woman” but rather applying a gender lens to understand the data and harnessing it to advance the interests, rights, and opportunities for all women. Our gendered approach allows us to consider the role of gender in shaping individuals’ experiences, opportunities, and challenges within the economic landscape. It recognises that economic security is deeply gendered and that systems were not built with women in mind. That’s why our methodology is created by women, for women — it is designed to capture not only financial outcomes, but also apply a gender and intersectional lens on analysing the broader social, cultural, and structural shifts needed for women to thrive. Our impact framework and change indicators were developed with our Sisters- not by consultants or experts- but the very women who are building their financial independence through self-employment.

We ground our practice in global best standards for social impact measurement, aligning with leading frameworks such as the Theory of Change, Outcomes Measurement and Journey Mapping. But we go further: we have created our own tools – the Global Sisters Impact Roadmap and Timeline Outcome Mapping. These tools do not just “track impact” but are holistic, long-term ways of understanding change over time. They are living and breathing tools that are our “North Star”, constantly driving us to create deeper and broader impact. They are focused on the areas that matter most to women and their economic security.

Why We Measure

Impact measurement helps us make visible the transformations in individual and groups of women’s lives. It allows us to:

  • Demonstrate that women can create their own jobs through micro business and self-employment.
  • Prove that women can build their financial resilience over time
  • Reveal the long-term, systemic barriers women face — and track how our systems change work dismantles them.
  • Elevate women’s voices and stories, not as “anecdotes” but as essential evidence of transformation.
  • Ensure accountability to the women we serve first, and to partners, donors, and the sector.

What We Measure

We measure across six interrelated “direct” impact domains and six systems change domains, anchored in our Impact Roadmap. This enables us to capture both individual journeys and collective shifts, while mapping the ripple effects into families, communities, and the wider economy. Our framework holds the balance between:

  • Individual & cohort progress: business acumen, enterprise, financial resilience, empowerment, influence and connection
  • Structural & systemic change: Economic value of Self-Employment, Women’s Financial Inclusion, Women’s Housing Security and Women’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing.
  • Long-term resilience: intergenerational benefits and reduction of gendered economic inequality.

How We Measure

We combine quantitative rigour with qualitative depth through a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach:

  • Relationally: Global Sisters deep, long-term relationships with Sisters mean that the data collected is provided formally and informally, and more robust than if collected by an anonymous third party. Sisters see themselves as customers not “clients” and the power dynamic is shifted for them to freely share what is working well and what is not.
  • Longitudinally: Our Programs go for 3+ years, with support provided indefinately. Our Theory of Change indicates it takes, on average, three years for women to set up a business and build it to the stage where they are financially independent and have improved their economic security. It take even longer to achieve the pillars of women’s economic security. We are around for the long-term and measure impact over the long-term.
  • Data collection: From sign-up and baseline forms through to quarterly surveys, interviews, focus groups, and Sister-led stories, we track change over time. We integrate program feedback, CRM monitoring, national datasets, and socio-economic indicators to situate women’s progress within broader contexts.
  • Data storage: Data is securely housed in HubSpot CRM, Google Drive, and our Community Portal, ensuring privacy, transparency, and longitudinal integrity.
  • Data analysis: We use Timeline Outcome Mapping to identify patterns, milestones, and systemic shifts, benchmarking against national datasets and triangulating insights to ensure accuracy.
  • Data ownership: We are pioneering Sister-owned data, giving women agency to track their own progress through our Community Portal.

By sharing impact through both data, diagrams and narratives, we celebrate women’s brilliance while revealing the deeper work needed to create equitable systems. This is impact measurement that tells the whole story — rigorous, relational, and transformative.

See our Impact Measurement Methodology Diagram