In 2014, the Social Innovation Fund launched a new program to support the expansion of Pay for Success (PFS) models in the United States. In its inaugural year, the PFS program awarded eight organizations grants to either assess the feasibility of launching PFS projects, or support the transaction structuring of PFS projects, in three issue areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development.
 
The Social Innovation Fund commissioned Abt Associates to develop the following reports and special topic briefs to provide practical insights on specific aspects of PFS programming and assist stakeholders in making informed decisions as they explore and implement projects.
 
Note: An earlier edition of this report described PFS as “an innovative method of financing social services that shares risks and rewards through collaboration of public, private, and nonprofit sectors.”  The description of PFS has been revised to account for the nuance between PFS contracting, an innovative approach to tackling social problems by tying funding for a social intervention to the verified achievement of positive social outcomes, and PFS Financing (such as social impact bonds), which provides the capital to cover operating costs of delivering a social intervention.
 

PFS Opportunities and Trends
This report offers insight into the rapidly growing field of Pay for Success, elements of Pay for Success projects to date, opportunities for local and state governments and nonprofit service providers to learn from existing projects, and recommendations for the social sector to consider.

This report provides an update on lessons learned from the Pay for Success field since April 2015. Included are themes from recent literature on Pay for Success, profiles of active Pay for Success projects, an inventory of publicly available Pay for Success tools, and a summary of recent budgetary and legislative proposals to further the Pay for Success field.
 
Stakeholder's Perspective
This report presents perspectives based on discussions with stakeholders in the Pay for Success field—including project implementers, federal agency staff, investors, and policy experts. It provides a strong knowledge base to inform AmeriCorps’ Pay for Success work, thinking, and practices and to frame other planned data collection and knowledge-sharing activities.
 
This issue brief is intended to assist stakeholders and government agencies considering using PFS in health-related interventions. It identifies the motivations for using PFS financing models to support health-related interventions, the challenges involved, and early insights about using PFS models with health-related interventions.
 
This issue brief is intended to inform new and diverse investors about the benefits and challenges of financing PFS initiatives. It also provides valuable information for any PFS project implementers looking to educate or motivate current or potential investors about PFS.
 
This issue brief focuses on how current Pay for Success projects across the country store, manage, and distribute capital using financial instruments and general accounting strategies.
 
This issue brief explores current Pay for Success project learnings related to capacity building and scale-up activities that are critical to meet the needs of service providers.
 

Full report

Further information

Program/Intervention
Best Practice Dissemination
Implementing Organization
CNCS Office of Research and Evaluation Commissioned Report
AmeriCorps Program(s)
Social Innovation Fund
Outcome Category
Nonprofit development
Improving AmeriCorps
Study Type(s)
Case Study or Descriptive
Researcher/Evaluator
Abt Associates
Published Year
2016