Federal Agency Announces $13 Million in Funding to Support Pay for Success Projects
Stanford
University, University of Utah, Social Finance, and Urban Institute among new
grantees
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corporation
for National and Community Service (CNCS), today announced more than $13 million
in funding for Pay for Success (PFS) projects through its Social Innovation
Fund (SIF). Announced by Lois Nembhard, acting director of the Social
Innovation Fund, at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Fall Research Conference in Washington, D.C., this funding includes awards to
four new organizations selected as part of SIF’s Pay for Success program and winners
of a pilot program focused on utilizing data to demonstrate impact, as well as
continuation funding to existing grantees.
The Social Innovation Fund is a powerful approach to
transforming lives and communities that positions the federal government to be
a catalyst for impact – mobilizing private resources to find and grow community
solutions with evidence of results. In
2014, the SIF reinforced its commitment to support innovative solutions and
change how public and private sector investors allocate philanthropic resources
by launching its Pay for Success program. This $30-plus million grantmaking
initiative was designed to help cities, states, and nonprofits develop PFS
projects, which tie funding for social services to its true impact in the
community.
“The Social Innovation Fund is
changing the way the government serves the public by using rigorous evaluation
and evidence to find what works and make it work for more people. This group of
Pay for Success grantees represents a diverse group of high-performing
organizations, and all are at the cutting edge of social financing and
innovation,” said Lois Nembhard, acting director of the Social Innovation Fund
at the Corporation for National and Community Service. “Through Pay for
Success, the Social Innovation Fund is piloting a new way of doing business
that is laser-focused on results. We are proud to be deepening our support for
efforts that meet the needs of American communities in more efficient and
effective ways.”
Through their most recent round of
Pay for Success grants, the SIF is providing $6.77 million in funding to four
organizations. This funding will help build the pipeline of Pay for Success
projects for local governments, with the goal to get more PFS projects
launched. These efforts will support the advancement of emerging models that
align payment for social services with verified social outcomes. This year’s winners include:
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Corporation for Supportive Housing ($1.1 million)
The Corporation for
Supportive Housing will select up to eight government agencies and service
providers from across the nation, providing them with technical assistance
required to successfully harness financing for Pay for Success projects. CSH’s
proposed project will prioritize underserved populations, including homeless
and at-risk individuals, as well as those with disabilities who are
inappropriately institutionalized. This work will also strengthen and support
the mission of the White House Data Drive Justice Initiative, in which CSH is a
technical assistance partner.
-
Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning ($1.77 million)
Through the Green &
Healthy Homes Initiative, the Coalition will support SIF Pay for Success
projects that address the social determinants of health. GHHI strives to foster
high-quality, evidence-based models that efficiently connect funding to
meaningful health, economic, and social outcomes in order to advance health
equity for people in low-income communities.
-
Social Finance, Inc. ($1.44
million)
Social Finance will
introduce Outcomes Rate Cards - an approach to PFS development successfully
utilized in the United Kingdom. An Outcomes Rate Card is a menu developed
upfront by government that defines what outcomes government wishes to purchase,
how much they will purchase them for, and how they will be measured. The cards
are then used to procure multiple service providers that will launch distinct
PFS contracts using the outcome terms previously defined. Government can thus
use one rate card to launch multiple PFS projects, significantly increasing the
impact for the same scope of work.
-
Third Sector Capital Partners ($2.4 million)
Working with
Partners for Our Children, Third Sector Capital Partners will competitively
select five government and research university Youth Development Performance
Hubs (PHs). Once selected, PHs will receive technical assistance valued at up
to $400,000 annually to integrate government data sets and create real-time
data systems between local governments and service providers. The national
initiative will focus on justice, homeless, and child welfare involved youth,
with a focus on California, Oregon, and Washington, which are areas with a deep
pipeline of PFS projects.
Awards provided through the Social
Innovation Fund (SIF) Pay for Success Administrative Data Pilot competition,
$4.05 million in total, will help current PFS projects better demonstrate the
impact of their programs by providing support for access to high-quality,
less-expensive data for evaluation purposes. Winners of this competition are:
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The Stanford Center on Poverty and
Inequality, in partnership with Third Sector Capital Partners ($1.5 million)
The Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI) has been carrying out some of the
country's most influential analyses of tax, census, and program data. As one of
the leading players in the PFS field, Third Sector Capital Partners has
extensive experience in innovative public-private financing and currently
guides some of the country's most promising PFS projects. CPI, in partnership with Third Sector Capital
Partners, will work together to improve the quality of the evidence used to
evaluate PFS initiatives, focusing initially on projects addressing economic
opportunity in California and Oregon.
-
The Urban Institute ($1.05 million)
The Urban Institute, which
houses the PFS Initiative and the National Neighborhood Indicators
partnership, and its partner Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy,
will provide data-related training and technical assistance to Pay For
Success sites across the country working in youth development, economic
opportunity, and healthy futures.
-
University of Utah's David
Eccles School of Business ($1.5
million)
Housed at the University of
Utah, the Sorenson Impact Center develops innovative and data-driven
solutions to difficult social problems.
The Center will focus on removing both the legal and technical
barriers to data access nationwide.
In the next several months,
organizations awarded will hold an open competition to select organizations
engaged in PFS activities to receive training and technical assistance valued
between $75,000 and $400,000.
An additional $2.6 million in
continuation funding was provided to Pay for Success grantees awarded in 2014.
These organizations include: Institute for Child Success, Inc., National
Council on Crime and Delinquency, and Nonprofit Finance Fund.
Earlier this year, two of the 2014 SIF-supported PFS projects
came to fruition. The nation’s first Environmental Impact Bond, issued through
DC Water, received technical assistance from Harvard Kennedy School Government
Performance Lab. Nonprofit Finance Fund provided technical assistance to the
second project, Denver’s Social Impact Bond, that will allow for services to be
delivered to chronically homeless individuals through Enterprise Community
Partners, Inc., in partnership with the Corporation for Supportive Housing.
Created in 2009, the SIF has grown
into nearly a $1 billion social impact incubator within the federal government,
creating more than 450 public-private partnerships that deliver high-impact,
community-based solutions that work.
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