“Oh what a beautiful morning'” is the perfect refrain from Rodger & Hammerstein’s eponymous musical to celebrate news that the state has signed into law a bill to help create Social Impact Bonds.
Meanwhile complaints about the size of the investor universe for impact products (I remain firmly against tax incentives as it emphasises the ‘novelty’ when we need wholesale education to make the case for SIBs within portfolios).
News too of a panel discussion on SIBs in NYC…have a great day and Happy whatever and watchmacallit it for the many readers celebrating holidays around the world both at the weekend and this week (too many to mention, hence the broad brush term!).
New State Pay-For-Success Program Promises Taxpayer Savings
Tulsa World
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin recently approved a new law authorizing pay-for-success contracts with nonprofits, which get rewarded if — and only if — they deliver.
If successful, the accountability program could reduce incarceration rates for women and lead to better outcomes for offenders, public safety and taxpayers.
The legislation, written by Sen. Kim David, R-Porter, and Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang, is patterned after similar, and so far successful, public-private ventures in New York and other states that in the past few years have adopted pay-for-success programs promoting accountability and results.
The initial pay-for-success program in Oklahoma would address diverting women from prison. Oklahoma has had the highest per-capita female incarceration rate in the country for at least 15 years.
Senate Bill 1278 was written with Tulsa’s successful Women In Recovery program in mind, but we hope other nonprofit programs will join the movement.
Foundations For Social Impact Bonds
philanthropy New York
Philanthropy has played a critical role in the nascent world of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and Pay-For-Success (PFS). Foundations can act as investors by providing credit enhancement, grants, and PRIs, but they can also increase demand for SIB/PFS projects. Many foundations are exploring ways to use these projects as a means to scale effective programs and catalyze government reform.
This session will focus on several models through which foundations can spur demand and support ongoing projects:
Working directly with state and local government;
Building provider capacity to participate in SIB/PFS projects;
Piloting interventions to prove economic viability for government as a payor;
Supporting robust performance measurement and management to ensure providers can achieve trigger outcomes; and
Enhancing the evaluations inherent in the SIB/PFS model.
Explore
The role that foundations can play in the SIB/PFS space.
The different models through which foundations can spur demand and support their ongoing projects.
A Philanthropy New York collaborative program, with The Rockefeller Foundation and Social Finance.
This program is “Partially Open.”
Presenters
To be announced.
Designed for
All interested funders
8:30- 9:00 AM Check-in
9:00-10:30 AM Program
Registration
Registration is required by June 24th.
Impact Investors Still Chasing A Too-Small Pool Of Companies
Anne Field – Forbes
Interest in impact investing continues to increase, even as investors report a shortage of promising opportunities.
That’s according to a recent study of 125 investors managing a total of $46 billion in impact investments conducted by The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and J.P. Morgan.
Among other noteworthy findings, the respondents committed $10.6 billion in 2013 and plan to increase that by 19% in 2014 , to $12.7 billion.
The survey also discussed the entry of several new institutional investors into the market. “These investors’ arrival may indicate that some of the barriers to entry for investors- – such as market awareness, investment opportunities and risk perceptions—have begun to ease,” it says.
The insurance and asset management giant AXA Group, for example, launched a project last October committing 150 million euros to focus on environmental, health and longevity or socioeconomic risks.
And Investing 4 Growth, a group of five local government pension funds in the UK, sent out an rfp last May to find investments with economic and social and/or environmental impacts; as of March, the group had pinpointed three potential investments for over 100 million pounds.
Also, the survey described stepped-up government support, at least in some countries, a trend likely to accelerate growth of the market. For example:
The UK announced 30% in tax relief for social investments and launched the long-awaited Social Stock Exchange.
In the US, the Obama administration started the National Impact Initiative to boost the use of impact investing as part of its economic development efforts.
The G8 meeting in London launched three projects to help the development of the impact investing market: research commissioned from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on global developments in the market; a Global Learning Exchange to develop and share best practices; and a Social Impact Investment Taskforce, which will include four working groups focusing on impact measurement, asst allocation, mission lock, and international development.
The European Union adopted a regulation in April, 2013, defining a new “European Social Entrepreneurship Fund” label, to make it easier for investors to identify funds with at least 70% of capital supporting social businesses.