Book
What Matters: Investing in Results to Build Strong, Vibrant Communities
The Table of Contents below outlines the chapters and authors featured in this book. In the coming weeks, we'll be adding stories of outcomes in action and much more.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to UC Berkeley Professor Len Syme. He is considered by many to be the father of social epidemiology. His insights on the social determinants of health have been instrumental in helping many of us in the community development field better understand how our efforts to improve neighborhoods also improve health and wellbeing.
Len once said that after 60 years of studying the statistical and epidemiological models that predicted health, he noticed something unmistakable: Healthy children had brighter eyes. In other words, bright eyes were as powerful a predictor of future health as all his high-powered science; only when faced with mounting challenges did the brightness fade and disease creep in.
This book is dedicated to the idea that all children are born with bright eyes and that the ultimate “outcome” is keeping their eyes bright for a lifetime. That outcome requires new ways of orienting our social systems, including new business models and new financing techniques, which are described in detail in the following pages.
Introduction
- Foreword: Deval Patrick (Managing Director, Bain Capital Double Impact; Former Governor of Massachusetts)
- So, Why All This Fuss About Results and Outcomes?: Antony Bugg-Levine (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
Section I
Shift to Outcomes
How Did We Get Here?
- The March Toward Outcomes-Based Funding: David Erickson (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)
- Performance-Based Contracting Can Provide Flexibility, Drive Efficiency, and Focus Resources on What Works in Social Services: Emily Gustafsson-Wright (Brookings Institution)
- Paying for Results: Reforming How the Public Sector Funds Social Services: Daniel Barker, John Cassidy and Winny Chen (Monitor Deloitte)
Why is This Important?
- Creating a Sustainable Outcomes Movement: Federal Policies to Build an Enabling Infrastructure: David Wilkinson (former director of The White House Office of Social Innovation)
- The Future of Effective Government: Use Evidence, Build Evidence, Repeat: Erica Brown, Josh McGee and Kathy Stack (Laura and John Arnold Foundation)
- Rules and Rituals: How to Drive Change: Zia Khan (The Rockefeller Foundation)
- Investing in Leadership to Build a Sustainable Nonprofit Sector: Kerry Sullivan (Bank of America Charitable Foundation)
- Underwriting Innovation: How Information Technology and Pay for Success Contracting Can Transform Public-Sector Outcomes: Caroline Whistler (Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc.) and Matt Gee (BrightHive, Inc.)
- Using Pay for Success to Solve the “Wrong Pockets” Problem: Andy McMahon and Stephanie Mercier (CSH)
- Clarity and Feedback: How Information Can Drive Outcomes: Jacob Harold (GuideStar)
- Nonobvious Metrics: Michael Weinstein (ImpactMatters)
- How Outcomes-Based Funding Models Can Improve the Effectiveness of State and Local Governments: Jeremy Keele and Sara Peters (Sorenson Impact Center)
Section II
How This Works
Prototypes
- Financing Outcomes Through Social Impact Bonds: Tracy Palandjian (Social Finance Inc.)
- Social Impact Guarantees Could Enable Pay for Success Contracting to Scale More Rapidly: George Overholser (Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc.)
- Can Prizes Solve Problems Facing Vulnerable Populations?: Renya Reed Wasson (Children’s Prize Foundation)
- Building a Market for Health: Achieving Community Outcomes Through a Total Health Business Model: Tyler Norris (Well Being Trust) and Jme McLean (Mesu Strategies)
- Advance Market Commitments: Rewarding Innovation Without Picking Winners: Ruth Levine (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)
- Scaling Programs That Work by Paying for Success: Tamar Bauer and Roxane White (Nurse-Family Partnership)
- The Strong Families Fund: Outcomes-Driven Resident Service Coordination: Kimberlee Cornett (The Kresge Foundation)
- The Power of Incentive Prize Competitions: Jennifer Bravo, Christopher Frangione, and Stephanie Wander (XPRIZE Foundation)
- Can the Housing Tax Credit be a Model for Connecting Capital to More Human-Centered Outcomes? Terri Ludwig (Enterprise Community Partners)
- Investing in Innovation and Outcomes: The Story of DC Water’s Environmental Impact Bond: Beth Bafford (Calvert Foundation), Mark Kim (DC Water), and Eric Letsinger (Quantified Ventures)
- How to Finance Outcomes/Results Through Government Prize Competitions: Jenn Gustetic (NASA)
- Outcomes Rate Cards: A Path to Paying for Success at Scale: Lara Metcalf (Social Finance Inc.) and Andrew Levitt (Bridges Fund Management)
- The Impact Security: Reimagining the Nonprofit Capital Market: Lindsay Beck and Catarina Schwab (NPX) and Anna Pinedo (Morrison & Foerster LLP)
- Equity With a Twist: Getting to Outcomes With Flexible Capital: Nancy O. Andrews (Low Income Investment Fund) and Janis Bowdler (JPMorgan Chase & Co.)
- Investing in Health from the Ground Up: Building a Market for Healthy Neighborhoods: Maggie Super Church (CLF Ventures)
Better Results for Vulnerable Communities
- More Services, Less Wasteful Spending: Pay for Success as an Innovative Strategy to Combat the Opioid Crisis: Katherine Klem (Institute for Child Success)
- Improving Early Learning Outcomes Through an Outcomes-Based Funding Model: Janis Dubno (Sorenson Impact Center)
- Pay for Success Creates Impact-Driven Partnerships That Benefit Homeless Families: David Merriman (Cuyahoga Job and Family Services)
- An Outcomes-Based Approach to Concentrated Poverty: Carol Naughton (Purpose Built Communities)
- From Evidence-Based Policies to Positive Outcomes: How to Fund What Really Works in Child Welfare: Susan M. Snyder (Georgia State University)
- Bringing Together Collective Impact and Pay for Performance: A New Approach to Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: Kate Howard (City and County of San Francisco) and Fred Blackwell (The San Francisco Foundation)
- Toward the North Star: Reorienting Workforce Development to Improve Long-Term Outcomes: Carrie McKellogg and Carla Javits (REDF)
- Better Outcomes for Chronically Homeless “Frequent Users”: Louis Chicoine (Abode Services)
Field and Sector Implications
- Better Outcomes for the Nonprofit Sector: Muzzy Rosenblatt (BRC)
- Charting New Terrain in Social Health: Prabhjot Singh and Anna Stapleton (Arnhold Institute for Global Health)
- Outcomes-Based Funding and the Community Finance Ecosystem: Annie Donovan (CDFI Fund)
- Narrowing Focus Was the Key to Transforming the Lives of High-Risk Youth in Massachusetts: Molly Baldwin (Roca)
- Key Considerations for Gaining Traction in Medicaid: Allison Hamblin (Center for Health Care Strategies)
- Standards of Excellence Can Help Accelerate Adoption of Outcomes-Oriented Funding in Public and Private Sectors: David Medina (Results for America)
- Sustainable Outcomes Require an Interdependent Web of Strategies: Susan Dreyfus (Alliance for Strong Families and Communities)
- A New Normal for Evidence Building: Five Tips for Funders: Kelly Fitzsimmons (Project Evident)
Reasons for Caution and Optimism
- Truly Making a Difference: The Outcome/Impact Dilemma: Gordon Berlin (MDRC)
- Making Measurement Matter in Health Care: Peter Long (Blue Shield of California Foundation)
- The Ethics of Outcomes-Based Funding Models: Jodi Halpern (University of California, Berkeley) and Douglas Jutte (Build Healthy Places Network)
- The Promise and Reality of Social Impact Bonds: Richard McGahey (Institute for New Economic Thinking) and Mark Willis (New York University)
- Performance-Based Contracting in New York City: Progressive Practice or Punitive Pursuit?: Jaclyn Kelly and Margaret Ross-Martin (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
- A Focus on Cost Savings May Undermine the Influence of Outcomes-Based Funding Mechanisms: Megan Golden (Mission: Cure Pancreatitis); Jitinder Kohli and Samantha Mignotte (Monitor Deloitte)
- Investing in What It Truly Takes to Deliver Outcomes: Approaching Collective Challenges with Collective Responses: Kristin Giantris and Jessica LaBarbera (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
Section III
Synthesis and Way Forward
- The Measures of a Movement: Investing for Results Now and Tomorrow: Andrea Levere (Prosperity Now)
- From Funding Activities to Investing in Results: How Do We Get from Here to There? Antony Bugg-Levine (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
- Routinizing Leadership: Creating a Market for What Works: Ian Galloway (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)