PLY: Encouraging news for broad SIB adoption across the US and Canada…have a great week.
State And Local Governments Receive Assistance To Launch Pay for Success Projects Across The Country
Doug Gavel – Harvard Kennedy School
The Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab (SIB Lab) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) today announced the selection of five state and local governments to receive technical assistance to help develop Pay for Success (PFS) projects that align payment for community-based solutions with verified social outcomes. The competition, run with support from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Social Innovation Fund (SIF) and the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, received applications from 30 state and local governments, demonstrating the growing interest in new approaches to identifying and funding effective social services to address pressing social problems. In addition to the five new state and local governments that will receive technical assistance, the SIB Lab will collaborate with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) on assisting a cohort of three state governments.
Ontario Launches Fund To Foster Social Enterprises
Stephen Thompson – Triple Pundit
Doing well by doing good is an art form – and it’s one that’s attracting increasing interest and investment from the private sector. Investors and entrepreneurs alike are showing a growing interest in social enterprise investing, making this field a remarkable new opportunity for prosperity on a global basis. But it doesn’t happen overnight, or without government support.
It’s not altruism that drives governments to support these groups; wide-ranging benefits are well-documented. Organizations that achieve both financial goals and social, environmental and economic change contribute to the creation of more jobs, a healthier community and ultimately a stronger economy.
The good news: Increasingly, the public and private sector are working together to open the door by connecting capital to the greater good.
Making it work: Funding social enterprise investors
Policy development that works hand-in-hand with private-sector investors holds the key to shaping a social enterprise-friendly economy. And yet, access to capital is the No. 1 issue of concern limiting growth, according to surveys of social enterprise leaders.
With that in mind, the province of Ontario, Canada recently launched the Social Enterprise Demonstration Fund (SEDF) to foster the growth of social entrepreneurs and enterprises who are tackling Ontario’s most pressing social and environmental issues — and creating jobs.
Rather than funding social enterprises directly, SEDF will contribute CAD$4 million to 11 social finance organizations across the province at up to $500,000 each. Each participating regional organization is, in turn, leveraging the province’s funding to raise additional capital from other sources, including banks and private investors, on a minimum 1:1 matching basis. The capital pools created will then enable micro-loans and grants to early-stage social enterprises.
But one fund alone does not shape a social enterprise-friendly economic environment. SEDF is Ontario’s latest initiative in a far-reaching Social Enterprise Strategy to build the social enterprise sector.
Other elements of the Social Enterprise Strategy include social impact bonds, the Ontario Catapult Microloan Fund and Social Enterprise Ontario, a one-window resource website.