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.
portfolio
Expanding Access to Pre-K in Memphis and Shelby County
One thousand pre-K seats were set to disappear in Shelby County, TN, due to an expiring federal grant in the summer of 2019. Yet, research shows that a quality early education is critical for long-term educational outcomes, especially for children from low-income or high-risk settings. In Shelby County, where 45% of children live in poverty, the City and County leadership recognized they could not afford to lose those seats. The City and County leadership committed not only to fund those 1,000 seats, but to dedicate dollars over the subsequent years to reach universal, needs-based pre-K.
Using an outcomes financing structure, the City and County were able to align their dollars with student outcomes. Together with First 8 Memphis, the Urban Child Institute, the City of Memphis, Shelby County, and Maycomb Capital's Community Outcomes Fund 1,000 seats of high-quality, full-day pre-K was financed for four-year olds in the community.
Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement
Two hundred and thirty thousand individuals in the greater Boston area face barriers to employment and high-quality jobs because of limited English language proficiency. As a result, these individuals experience significantly lower annual income that is on average $24,000 below their English-fluent peers. Those with limited English have a 40% unemployment rate and if they are employed, they often hold low-wage positions with limited room for career advancement.
This outcomes financing project supported contextualized English language and workforce development services as well as job placement and coaching for 1,810 New Americans. 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. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts paid for outcomes, including the success of participants in making transitions to employment and earning higher wages.
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
news
United Healthcare backs Maycomb Capital’s pay-for-success fund
December 07, 2020
The world’s largest healthcare company by revenue made a multi-million-dollar investment in Maycomb Capital’s Community Outcomes Fund to finance pre-K education in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County, Tennessee.
United Healthcare Newsroom: An investment in pre-K education may empower a lifetime of health
December 02, 2020
Another year of high-quality pre-kindergarten is underway in Memphis and Shelby County, TN for the 2020-2021 school year! The Community Outcomes Fund is honored to have First 8 Memphis and United Health Group as partners in this work to increase school readiness and academic performance through outcomes financing. This partnership between the public sector, local non-profit organizations, and mission-aligned investors finances approximately 1,000 seats of high-quality pre-k and wraparound support for low-income four-year old children.
Manatt Represents Maycomb Capital in Social Impact Pre-K Financing
November 25, 2020
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips represented the Community Outcomes Fund in an outcomes financing project implementing high-quality, full-day preschool for students in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee.
Forbes: Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit - And Pushing For Change
September 08, 2020
The Impact 50 list from Forbes highlights 50 notable impact investors across environment, health and equality, and diversified impact. Among those selected are Steve and Connie Ballmer, anchor investors in the Community Outcomes Fund.
Webinar: The Emergence of Impact Investment Debt Funds
July 06, 2020
In a webinar organized by Paul Hastings LLP in collaboration with ClearlySo, Andi Phillips of the Community Outcomes Fund at Maycomb Capital, Alex von Sponeck of Frontier Credit Partners, and Diala Minott of Paul Hastings joined Rodney Schwartz of ClearlySo for a conversation about impact investment debt funds.
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.
join our team!
news
Maycomb Capital Partnership Transforms Social Services Funding
January 24, 2021
The Community Outcomes Fund is thrilled to partner with UnitedHealth Group to improve social determinants of health in underserved communities. By engaging with community leaders, service providers and local and state government, our investments will support efforts that improve SDoH for individuals across the nation.
United Healthcare backs Maycomb Capital’s pay-for-success fund
December 07, 2020
The world’s largest healthcare company by revenue made a multi-million-dollar investment in Maycomb Capital’s Community Outcomes Fund to finance pre-K education in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County, Tennessee.
United Healthcare Newsroom: An investment in pre-K education may empower a lifetime of health
December 02, 2020
Another year of high-quality pre-kindergarten is underway in Memphis and Shelby County, TN for the 2020-2021 school year! The Community Outcomes Fund is honored to have First 8 Memphis and United Health Group as partners in this work to increase school readiness and academic performance through outcomes financing. This partnership between the public sector, local non-profit organizations, and mission-aligned investors finances approximately 1,000 seats of high-quality pre-k and wraparound support for low-income four-year old children.
Manatt Represents Maycomb Capital in Social Impact Pre-K Financing
November 25, 2020
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips represented the Community Outcomes Fund in an outcomes financing project implementing high-quality, full-day preschool for students in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee.
Forbes: Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit - And Pushing For Change
September 08, 2020
The Impact 50 list from Forbes highlights 50 notable impact investors across environment, health and equality, and diversified impact. Among those selected are Steve and Connie Ballmer, anchor investors in the Community Outcomes Fund.
Webinar: The Emergence of Impact Investment Debt Funds
July 06, 2020
In a webinar organized by Paul Hastings LLP in collaboration with ClearlySo, Andi Phillips of the Community Outcomes Fund at Maycomb Capital, Alex von Sponeck of Frontier Credit Partners, and Diala Minott of Paul Hastings joined Rodney Schwartz of ClearlySo for a conversation about impact investment debt funds.
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.
