Governments receive assistance with social impact bond projects.

Six state and local governments--Colorado/Denver, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina--will receive technical assistance to develop new social impact bonds as winners of a national competition sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and Harvard Kennedy School's Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab. In the social impact bond model, governments work with service providers and private-sector investors to fund prevention-focused social programs that help address pressing problems. Investors are then repaid only when improved social outcomes are achieved. Social impact bonds have the potential to open new funding sources for programs that deliver measurable social benefits and save taxpayer dollars in the process.

The winning state and local governments plan to address issues ranging from early childhood education to helping seniors remain in their homes longer. The lab will provide each with a full-time Government Innovation Fellow, who will be based for one year in the government agency that is spearheading the pay-for-success initiative; pro bono advising; up to six months of programmer and data analyst time; and a small pool of flexible funding that can be used to remove barriers to implementation of social impact bonds.

The event was developed to...