As budgets grow tighter, governments must find ways to spend smarter by making the most of limited resources. Social Finance partners with government officials to better serve their constituents and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently. We bring impact-oriented advice and support, backed by strong data analysis and an understanding of how to scale effective interventions. With broad stakeholder engagement, analytical rigor, and hands-on execution support, our advisory services help governments generate measurable social impact.
Our Approach
Social Finance partners with elected officials, policymakers, civic leaders, community members, philanthropies, and service providers to drive social service delivery systems toward a more data-driven, outcomes-focused orientation. We work within existing government systems to assess, design, fund, measure, and continuously improve programs. We accomplish these activities by:
- Strengthening evidence-oriented policy analysis through careful review of program evidence, detailed cost-benefit analysis, clear guidance on metric selection, and support in crafting thoughtful measurement plans.
- Designing implementation plans and supporting the launch of evidence-based interventions.
- Developing outcomes-focused funding tools such as outcomes-based contracts, outcomes rate cards, Social Impact Bonds, Career Impact Bonds, and other Pay for Success funding structures to align incentives and protect taxpayer dollars.
- Establishing governance committees and collaborative data review processes that enable frequent feedback loops to drive continuous quality improvement and program innovation.
Our Active Performance Management process provides ongoing governance support and data analysis to improve outcomes. This work focuses on metric development, data collection and analysis, performance evaluation, and program model adaptation to measurably improve lives.
Projects
Connecticut Office of Early Childhood
Develop and launch outcomes rate cards for home visiting.
Texas DFPS Prevention and Early Intervention
Advise the division of Prevention and Early Intervention within the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services on opportunities to incorporate outcome-based contracting across its early childhood programs.
Ventura County
Develop a cross-sectoral understanding of the cost of persistent homelessness in the county through integrating and analyzing data from across homelessness supports, health care, behavioral health, criminal justice, and emergency response systems.
California Department of Social Services
Provide training to state and local governments on how to incorporate the principles of Pay for Success, outcomes-based contracting, and Active Performance Management into their service delivery systems.
Washington State
Develop and implement outcomes-based funding strategies to improve newborn health in the State of Washington.
Publications
- “Pay for Success issue brief series: Manage,” Social Finance
- “Pay for Success issue brief series: Launch,” Social Finance
- “Pay for Success issue brief series: Explore,” Social Finance
- “Pay for systems change,” Stanford Social Innovation Review
- “Expanding access to justice with social impact financing,” Social Finance
- “Using Pay for Success to improve outcomes for the persistently homeless in Sacramento,” Social Finance
- “Unlocking the potential of performance management with Goodwill Nurse-Family Partnership,” Social Finance
- See more publications >>
“Social Finance forges partnerships between the public and private sectors and helps empower governments to achieve outcomes for the children and families we serve.”
— Elizabeth Duryea, Director, Division of Systems & Organizational Development, Connecticut Department of Children and Families
The Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA)
SIPPRA was enacted as part of the Bipartisan Budget Bill of 2018 and appropriates $100 million to support the launch of state and local Pay for Success initiatives over a 10-year period. Learn more >>
Our Team
Managing Director Jeff Shumway and Vice President Jake Segal lead our advisory team, which brings experience from government and leading nonprofit, financial, consulting, and legal firms. Learn more >>
Contact Us
If you are interested in learning more our advisory work, contact Managing Director Jeff Shumway or Vice President Jake Segal.