Talk:Social Finance (US non-profit organization)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 January 2020 and 23 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sgonz380.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:38, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Page redirect/merge
I redirected the Page to Social Finance (consultancy) because these two articles discuss the same organization in two different countries. None of the sources in this article could possibly have been used to justify the subject's notability, while in the Social Finance Ltd. article, the best sources were U.S. sources. Mottezen (talk) 02:26, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Social Finance, Inc. is a nonprofit organization focusing on the emerging field of Pay for Success (a set of financing strategies that includes the Social Impact Bond (SIB)) in the United States. Social Finance provides advisory, social investment, and active performance management services to public- and private-sector partners seeking to drive more resources to social programs that deliver proven results to those in need. The organization has offices in Boston, MA, Austin, TX and San Francisco, CA. Social Finance allows corporations to manifest corporate social responsibility by contributing to the funding of Pay for Success projects.

History
In January 2011, David Blood (Generation Investment Management), Sir Ronald Cohen (Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group and The Portland Trust) and Tracy Palandjian founded Social Finance as a sister organization to Social Finance, Ltd., which pioneered the PFS model and launched the first PFS project in 2010. The organization was started in Boston, MA, and added an Austin, TX, office in 2015. Its founding supporters include Omidyar Network, The Pershing Square Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.

Tracy Palandjian has served as Social Finance's CEO since its founding in 2011. She is a leader in the field of impact investing, and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the U.S. National Advisory Board to the Global Impact Investment Steering Group (previously the G8 Taskforce), which aims to catalyze the development of the social impact investment market. She is a frequent speaker and writer on impact investing and social innovation, and has been covered in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes, and The New York Times, among other media outlets. She is the co-author of Investing for Impact: Case Studies Across Asset Classes, a report that provides a view on the evolution of the impact investing industry.

Core activities
Social Finance's mission is to mobilize capital to drive social progress. It partners with governments, nonprofits, foundations, impact investors, and financial institutions to create financing solutions to improve social outcomes. Since its founding, the focus of Social Finance's work has been on building the market for Pay for Success, a funding model created to address the challenging dynamic of complex social problems, persistent government funding shortfalls, and cash-strapped nonprofit service providers. Pay for Success sits at the nexus of impact investing and the "funding what works" movement, and has garnered sustained interest among diverse stakeholders. Social Finance's core activities include advisory services, social investment, and active performance management as well as field building and market education. The services are described below.


 * Advisory Services: Social Finance partners with governments and foundations to assess promising programs that could benefit from Pay for Success financing.
 * Social Investment: Social Finance develops Pay for Success projects that improve social outcomes and generate financial returns. It mobilizes capital to support Pay for Success projects and put capital to work in service of society.
 * Active Performance Management: Social Finance works to ensure its projects stay on track and drive positive results for communities in need.
 * Field Building and Market Education: Through research, advocacy, and publications, Social Finance supports the development of the Pay for Success market and the broader impact investment movement.

Social Finance US is part of a global network that includes Social Finance UK, Social Finance Israel, Social Finance India and Social Finance Netherlands. The Social Finance Global Network collaborates to advance Pay for Success and similar efforts worldwide.

Pay for Success projects require transparency in order for there to be collaborative ethic. Transparency will allow each component of the model to have accountability and comparability which will help lead to the final goal of making a social impact. Social Finance manages and serves as an intermediary to make the Pay for Success projects happen.

How do these partnerships work for Pay for Success projects?


 * 1) Private sectors invest in social impact bonds
 * 2) Non-profit organizations use that funding to tackle a specific problem in society
 * 3) Government pays back investors and they receive profit if it is proven statistically that the project has been successful

Project Examples
Ventura County Project to Support Reentry In November 2017, the Ventura County Executive Office, Ventura County Probation Agency, Interface Children & Family Services, and Social Finance launched the Ventura County Project to Support Reentry, the nation's 20th Pay for Success project. The project provides a customized reentry program for 400 men and women on formal probation, with the goals of reducing recidivism, improving public safety, and promoting family stability and economic opportunity. Social Finance raised $2.6 million in capital to fund the project and will continue to provide active performance management and investor relations through the project end in 2021.

Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement Pay for Success Project Social Finance, with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Jewish Vocational Service (JVS), launched the Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement Project in June 2017. The project will increase access to workforce development services, including vocational training, English language classes, job search assistance, and college-transitioning programming for approximately 2,000 adults over three years, helping limited-English speakers in Greater Boston make successful transitions to employment, higher wage jobs, and higher education. Social Finance is project intermediary.

Oklahoma Women in Recovery Pay for Success Project The State of Oklahoma and Tulsa-based Family & Children's Services entered into a Pay for Success contract aimed at reducing Oklahoma's nation-leading female incarceration rate. The project expands the services of the Women in Recovery prison diversion program, admitting up to 125 non-violent female offenders into the program annually for up to five years. Social Finance served as project advisor.

New York State In December 2013, Social Finance and its partners launched a Pay for Success project in New York with the goals of increasing employment, reducing re-incarceration, and improving public safety. The project will expand the Center for Employment Opportunities, a comprehensive employment intervention, to a target of 2,000 formerly incarcerated individuals over a period of 5.5 years. The $13.5 million financing was syndicated to individual investors via a wealth management platform (Bank of America Merrill Lynch), the first Pay for Success project to take this approach. Social Finance will continue to provide active performance management and investor relations through the end of the project in 2018.

National Partnership with Nurse-Family Partnership Social Finance and Nurse-Family Partnership's National Service Office work together to expand Nurse-Family Partnership's home visiting services for low income, first-time mothers. Currently, the two organizations are developing and exploring Pay for Success projects in multiple jurisdictions throughout the United States.This project initiated in South Carolina on February 2016 when Governor Nikki Haley announced this four year program. A total of $30 million was raised to execute this project. All of those involved are aiming for the project to be successful within those four years in order to receive money from the government.

Philadelphia Working with the office of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Social Finance explored the feasibility of improving recidivism and child welfare outcomes through a Pay for Success transaction. The final report was made publicly available.

Veterans Coordinated Approach to Recovery and Employment (Veterans CARE) Pay for Success Project

This project aims to reduce unemployment and underemployment of US Veterans by providing Individual Placement and Support (IPS) through VA medical centers. In the span of 3 years it will assist and track the recovery service and employment transition of 480 veterans from Massachusetts and New York. Social Finance is one of six partners in the 1st Pay for Success project that will help Veterans. This project has multiple investors funding it, including BNP Paribas, Northern Trust, The Dakota Foundation, Deutsche Bank, Robin Hood Foundation. A total of $5.1 million was raised to execute this project and if it achieves success then investors will be receiving returns.