… Stanford University, University of Utah, Social Finance and Urban Institute among new grantees
By Altimepost.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) has announced more than $13 million in funding for Pay for Success (PFS) projects through its Social Innovation Fund (SIF).
Acting director of the Social Innovation Fund at the Corporation for National and Community Service, Lois Nembhard, made the announcement at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
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.
“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:
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.
Green & Healthy Homes Initiative ($1.77 million)
The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative 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:
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.
