The Community Outcomes Fund provides outcomes financing (also known as pay-for-success) that matches private capital with local priorities, realigning government programs with evidence-based solutions to social challenges.
Outcomes financing is a next-generation public-private partnership that offers a promising way to combine market discipline with performance management. The approach enables federal, state and local governments to partner with high performing service providers and use private capital to expand social programs. Government identifies a priority and target population, sizes the targeted impact and then identifies a service provider with the capacity to deliver meaningful outcomes successfully. Investors provide the upfront working capital to scale services, shifting the risk of impact from the government to the private sector and are repaid based on demonstrated outcomes.
investments
Expanding Access to Pre-K in Memphis and Shelby County
This partnership will deliver high quality Pre-K to approximately 1,000 low-income four-year old children in the City of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee.
The Pre-K programs in this project deliver high impact and targeted curriculums to increase school readiness and academic performance, alongside wraparound services for children and families in every classroom. The local school district and local charter network will operate 49 Pre-K classrooms, with support from First 8 Memphis, a nonprofit organization designed to integrate best-practice interventions that support at-risk children from birth through age eight.
The City of Memphis and Shelby County will repay investors based on the program’s ability to maintain consistent attendance, improve early reading skills, and demonstrate Kindergarten readiness among students in participating classrooms.
Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement
This Pay for Success (PFS) initiative will deliver workforce development services to approximately 2,000 limited English speaking adults in Greater Boston over three years to help them progress up the economic ladder.
The service provider, Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) is one of the largest community-based providers of adult education and workforce development services in Greater Boston. JVS's services include vocational English language classes, integrated with job search assistance, placement, and job coaching. Certain individuals will receive college preparation and placement services.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts will repay investors based on the success of participants in making transitions to employment, earning higher wage jobs, and earning higher education.
outcomes financing
WHAT IS OUTCOMES FINANCING?
In communities across the country, social challenges persist while resources remain stagnant or even decline. Today, more than ever, governments must find ways to smartly spend scarce dollars. Outcomes financing has emerged as a promising way for local governments to fund what works and improve outcomes for disadvantaged communities.
Government and community leaders define outcomes they want to achieve; develop procurements and contracts that pay based on results achieved, rather than services performed; and mission-driven investors provide financing to the service providers.
WHO IS THE COMMUNITY OUTCOMES FUND?
The Community Outcomes Fund is a dedicated pool of mission-driven private capital for outcomes financing. The Fund has significant capital to invest in these next-generation public-private partnerships that scale high-quality human service programs for low-income communities. For policymakers, this means increasing accountability and transparency in the contracting for and delivery of human services. For communities, outcomes financing can help drive better outcomes for individuals and families.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
With outcomes financing, government and community leaders and other partners come together to leverage private dollars to fund the upfront delivery of high-quality services, where investors are repaid based on the program achieving meaningful outcomes.
GOVERNMENT
identifies priorities and pays for meaningful outcomes only
PROJECT MANAGER/SERVICE PROVIDER
receives resources to expand programs aligned with community priorities
COMMUNITY
OUTCOMES FUND
deploys working capital
upfront to fund services
COMMUNITIES
receive services that
improve local outcomes
VALIDATOR
tracks outcomes
over time
WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR?
LEADERSHIP & SUPPORT
Strong political leadership and community support for addressing a community need using an outcomes-based approach
STRONG PROVIDERS WITH THE CAPACITY TO SCALE
Service providers with a track record of delivering high-quality programs and demonstrated operational and strategic capability to grow their operations and serve more community members
ACCESS TO DATA
Data that can demonstrate the outcomes achieved by individuals and families as a result of participation in particular human service programs and is accessible to project partners
AVAILABLE FUNDING FOR OUTCOMES PAYMENTS
Funds identified that can be used to pay for outcomes, which could include local or federal sources, existing or new funds
team
Andrea Phillips, Founder & Managing Partner
Andi Phillips has over 25 years of experience leading, designing and implementing large scale, public private partnerships that leverage private investment to address pressing social challenges. At Goldman Sachs, she launched and managed the Goldman Sachs Social Impact Fund and led signature social impact bond investments for the firm including the investment in the Rikers Island Social Impact Bond, the first such transaction ever executed by a financial institution and in the U.S. market. As of June 2016, Ms. Phillips had led 4 of the 12 outcomes-based financing transactions launched in the U.S. market, including transactions that financed recidivism reduction in Massachusetts and early childhood education in Utah and Chicago. Previously, Ms. Phillips was president of a Community Development Financing Institution (“CDFI”), Seedco Financial, which provided affordable capital to small businesses and nonprofits in disadvantaged communities. At Seedco, Andi also managed performance-based contracts in workforce development, totaling over $100 million. Ms. Phillips holds a BA from Tufts University and a MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Ms. Phillips lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and three sons.
Margot Kane, Senior Advisor
Margot Kane is a Senior Advisor to the Community Outcomes Fund. She has experience developing investment partnerships across multiple sectors, geographies and strategies in private debt and equity, including partnerships with municipal, federal, and multilateral entities, foundations, corporations, CDFIs and commercial banks. She has designed and executed blended finance strategies in underserved markets, such as urban redevelopment in low-income cities, waste infrastructure in emerging markets, and climate-related investment strategies. Previously, Margot held leadership roles in the social investment industry, serving as the Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Calvert Impact Capital, and as CFO and Chief Investment Officer at Closed Loop Partners, a circular economy investment manager. Margot earned her M.B.A. from the University of California-Berkeley and a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She serves on the investment committee of Calvert Impact Capital and the advisory board of the Meloy Fund. Margot lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
Jeremy Keele, Senior Advisor
team
Andrea Phillips, Founder & Managing Partner
Andi Phillips has over 25 years of experience leading, designing and implementing large scale, public private partnerships that leverage private investment to address pressing social challenges. At Goldman Sachs, she launched and managed the Goldman Sachs Social Impact Fund and led signature social impact bond investments for the firm including the investment in the Rikers Island Social Impact Bond, the first such transaction ever executed by a financial institution and in the U.S. market. As of June 2016, Ms. Phillips had led 4 of the 12 outcomes-based financing transactions launched in the U.S. market, including transactions that financed recidivism reduction in Massachusetts and early childhood education in Utah and Chicago. Previously, Ms. Phillips was president of a Community Development Financing Institution (“CDFI”), Seedco Financial, which provided affordable capital to small businesses and nonprofits in disadvantaged communities. At Seedco, Andi also managed performance-based contracts in workforce development, totaling over $100 million. Ms. Phillips holds a BA from Tufts University and a MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Ms. Phillips lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and three sons.
Margot Kane, Senior Advisor
Margot Kane is a Senior Advisor to the Community Outcomes Fund. She has experience developing investment partnerships across multiple sectors, geographies and strategies in private debt and equity, including partnerships with municipal, federal, and multilateral entities, foundations, corporations, CDFIs and commercial banks. She has designed and executed blended finance strategies in underserved markets, such as urban redevelopment in low-income cities, waste infrastructure in emerging markets, and climate-related investment strategies. Previously, Margot held leadership roles in the social investment industry, serving as the Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Calvert Impact Capital, and as CFO and Chief Investment Officer at Closed Loop Partners, a circular economy investment manager. Margot earned her M.B.A. from the University of California-Berkeley and a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She serves on the investment committee of Calvert Impact Capital and the advisory board of the Meloy Fund. Margot lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
Jeremy Keele, Senior Advisor
Jeremy Keele is a Senior Advisor to the Community Outcomes Fund. Jeremy most recently served as President and CEO of the Sorenson Impact Center, a university based think- and do-tank focused social impact and innovation. During his time at Sorenson, Jeremy advised dozens of investors, government agencies, family offices, foundations, and non-profits on strategies to align their funding and activities with their values. Prior to Sorenson, Jeremy was deputy mayor over policy for his hometown of Salt Lake. While in government, Jeremy helped structure and negotiate the first social impact bond in the country focused on early childhood education for at-risk kids in the community. Prior to his time in government, Jeremy was a corporate attorney with the law firms of Cleary Gottlieb and Latham & Watkins in New York, London and Los Angeles. During his 8 years of practice Jeremy led numerous multibillion dollar, cross-border mergers & acquisitions and corporate financing transactions for large corporate clients around the world. Jeremy holds a BS / BA from Brigham Young University, a JD from New York University and an MPA from Harvard.
Simone Gross, Director
Simone Gross is a Director at Maycomb Capital. Prior to joining Maycomb Capital, Simone was a corporate attorney with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. During her 6 years of law practice, Simone represented and advised banks, community development financial institutions, hospital systems, nonprofits, and other clients on outcomes financing, impact investing, tax credits, nonprofit restructuring, and healthcare mergers and acquisitions. Simone holds a JD and MA in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a BS from Cornell University. Simone is a board member of Women in Housing and Finance.
Shelby Kohn, Director
Shelby Kohn is the Director of Public-Private partnerships at Maycomb Capital. Shelby worked for the City of New York under the Bloomberg administration for ten years. She held a range of leadership roles in the Mayor’s Office, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Small Business Services. Prior to joining Maycomb, Shelby worked for Bennett Midland, a management consulting firm for the civic sector. As a consultant, she advised mayor’s offices across the country to make a measurable impact on major challenges in their communities. She also facilitated strategic planning efforts and operational improvements for major social service organizations. Shelby received an MA in Urban Planning from Columbia University and holds a BA from Haverford College.
Alison Och, Associate
Alison Och started her career at Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst in the Consumer Retail & Healthcare group, advising corporations on strategic financings and acquisitions. Ms. Och holds a BS from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ariella Rotenberg, Associate
Ariella Rotenberg previously worked with The ImPact, a member organization for impact investors. Prior to The ImPact, she was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Rotenberg earned an M.Phil at the University of Cambridge in Development Economics and a BA from Harvard University in Social Studies.
Faith Burns, Analyst
Faith Burns supports the development of public-private partnerships for the Community Outcomes Funds. Prior to joining Maycomb Capital, she completed an internship at The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, conducting independent public policy research and analysis in the state of Virginia. She has also interned at the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, where she worked on economic development projects. Ms. Burns received a BA in Economics from Emory University.
news
Urban Institute: SIPPRA NOFA — An Investor’s Perspective
March 06, 2019
Justin Milner, director of the Urban Institute's Pay for Success Initiative, interviewed co-founder and managing partner of the Community Outcomes Fund, Andi Phillips, to explore how private investors in the pay for success space are thinking about the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA) and the new Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).
Prudential Financial, Inc., Ballmer family, and Kresge Foundation invest in largest U.S. pay-for-success fund to date
May 14, 2018
Prudential Financial, Inc., Steve and Connie Ballmer, and the Kresge Foundation today announced $40 million in investment commitments to the Community Outcomes Fund, a fund to scale pay-for-success (P4S) investments in the United States.
The Fund, which is being raised and managed by New York-based Maycomb Capital, matches private capital with local priorities and public-sector agencies--such as states, public departments or counties--to invest in social and health services that produce measurable outcomes and deliver financial returns to investors. In the process, the Fund also helps align government resources with evidence-based solutions to social challenges.
Boston’s Judaism-infused Investment Experiment
August 10, 2017
Last month, forty impact investors contributed to support the Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement project, a Social Impact Bond (also known as Pay for Success financing) centered around one of Boston’s oldest Jewish nonprofits, Jewish Vocational Service (JVS).
‘Pay-for-success’ proves a boon to social services
June 26, 2017
A group of investors has made a big bet — not on a company, but on a local nonprofit, the Jewish Vocational Service.
With an infusion of $12.4 million from the investors, the organization will offer vocational English-language lessons to about 2,000 immigrants and refugees in Greater Boston. If they’re successful — that is, if the students learn, and are then able to move on to higher salaries over the next three years — the investors will get the money they invested back from the state, plus a profit of up to $2.6 million.
Public, Private, Nonprofit Partnerships: A Case Study of Social Impact Bonds
April 03, 2017
This chapter, excerpted from Knowledge to Action (Oxford University Press, 2017), explores social impact bonds as an exemplary demonstration of public, private, and nonprofit partnerships. Co-authored by Andrea Phillips, this chapter unpacks how social impact bonds -- "a financial tool in which private investment dollars lend capital to finance the expansion of human, health, and social service programs that work" -- can help build more equitable communities.
Copyright 2017. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Used with permission from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
What We Learned From the Nation’s First Social Impact Bond
July 02, 2015
What's this itemNearly half of the youth released each year from Rikers Island, New York City’s largest jail, return within 12 months. That’s an unacceptably high number and one we aimed to dramatically lower when we started a robust new program for youth in the jail back in 2012. As we learned recently, the program, an evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy that’s been effective in reducing recidivism in many other correctional settings, did not work at Rikers Island. As a result, the program will be discontinued.