3.1: Pay for Success

Partner with philanthropic and private investors to fund proven and promising practices and to significantly enhance the return on taxpayer investments.

Other Information:

Pay for Success offers innovative ways for the government to partner with philanthropic and private investors to fund proven and promising practices and to significantly enhance the return on taxpayer investments. Under this model, investors provide the up-front capital for social services with a strong evidence base that, when successful, achieve measurable outcomes that improve the lives of families and individuals and reduce their need for future services. Government pays when these measurable results are achieved. The PFS model is particularly well-suited to cost-effective interventions that produce government savings, since those savings can be used to pay for results.

Stakeholder(s):

• Philanthropic Investors


• Private Investors


• Taxpayers


• Department of Justice: Examples: The Department of Justice is coordinating PFS projects to use more effective prisoner re-entry interventions to reduce recidivism and its associated costs.


• Department of Labor: And the Department of Labor has launched an effort to test new and more effective strategies for delivering workforce development and preventative social services that cut across existing program siloes, increase job placement and improve job retention.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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