![Kids playing at daycare.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ct-landing-page-500x500.webp")
Supporting Connecticut’s Family Services
6 year
Partnership with $320M state agency supporting 215,000 Connecticut children aged 0-5 and their families
Program Delivery
Our Approach
![Three office workers stand together, two women and one man, looking at a folder held by the man.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/pexels-sora-shimazaki-5668840-500x333.jpg")
Governments and philanthropy spend billions on programs like job training, housing, and childcare, yet often cannot tell whether those programs work. We help governments and foundations connect what a program achieves to how it is funded and managed, so results drive decisions. We assist with ongoing measurement and adaptation to help respond to results over time.
There are many barriers to delivering good outcomes for people who use public programs. It might be funding that is organized around activity, not results; slow processes—like yearlong procurements—that limit programs’ ability to adapt; partners who define success differently; or a lack of consistent measurement to see how well things are working. We help government partners overcome these barriers. We have partnered with more than 80 state, county, and city governments on work to improve the mechanics of program delivery—contracts, funding, measurement—to get better results for people and communities.
We focus on the systems that give families stability and income: housing and homelessness, behavioral health, early childhood, workforce, and the safety net.
What We Do
- Define success. We work with agencies, providers, and the people a program serves to agree on what a good result looks like and how to measure it.
- Tie money to results. In some cases, we design contracts and funding that reward progress, from outcomes rate cards to outcomes-based contracts, and keep them simple enough to adjust as the program learns.
- Measure what is happening. We get close to the data, from administrative records to quick participant feedback, and use new tools, including AI, so leaders spot problems early instead of after the fact.
- Act on what we learn. We build management routines that turn data into decisions: shifting resources, coaching providers, and choosing what to scale. We stay through implementation to see whether it worked.
![A shopkeeper holds out a card terminal for a customer, who prepares to pay with a credit card at a counter with a basket of produce.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/pexels-kampus-8422732-500x334.jpg")
![A bearded man with a maroon beanie looks into the distance outside.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DSC_0047_for-web-e1667854422325-500x500.jpg")
