Public Sector Practice - Social Finance

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, Pay It Forward Funds, and other tools that 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.

We also offer workshops and trainings on outcomes-based funding mechanisms >>

"Most of the money for job training comes from the federal government and much of it hasn't been historically well spent. There's not enough of a focus on outcomes. We have to change the standards and the programs so that success isn't compliance; success is how many people got a job, or got a raise in a job."
— Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, speaking at Social Finance and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Workforce Realigned event

“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 and Organizational Development, Connecticut Department of Children and Families

“Social Finance provides great insight, expertise, and data. They helped us make the shift from just creating programs to creating programs with formal assessment and data collection. They're leaving our agency with the knowledge, skills, and ability to do the work moving forward. The bang for the buck in contracting with Social Finance is we get years and years of benefits from the short-term assistance they provided.”
— Joan Oliver, Program Supervisor, Marion County Juvenile Department

“The public sector team at Social Finance helped us achieve our full potential. Their project development and coordination expertise made it possible for us to maximize our impact and effectively meet our citizens' needs.”
— Government Agency

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. Learn more>

Ventura County Homelessness

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. Learn more >

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.

See more projects >>

Publications

“How Connecticut Used Data to Deliver Covid-19 Vaccines,” Social Finance
“American Rescue Plan: How Outcomes-Based Practices Can Maximize Community Impact,” Social Finance
“Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships Are Advancing Economic Mobility,” Social Finance and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Philadelphia
“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 >>

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.