Category Archive for : ‘News’

White House Features New Social Innovation Award

The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality launched today a new $3 million partnership with Third Sector Capital Partners, the Social Innovation Fund, the Ballmer Group, and the White House Office of Social Innovation to build an administrative-data framework for measuring and evaluating the success of social service programs designed to reduce poverty and inequality.

A $1.5 million grant was awarded by the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, after a rigorous nationwide competition. The SIF funds

By Nadia Ahmed and Melissa Penney

From September 7th to 9th, Third Sector joined other grantees for the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) Convening hosted by the Corporation for National & Community Service in Washington, DC. The event gathered government leaders, funders, service providers, and consultants to share their successes and lessons learned in implementing and expanding evidence-based services. The theme of this year’s convening was Risk, Agility, and Resilience, reflected in the many conference sessions on field disruption, course correction, and scaling change.

Throughout the convening, themes of equity and engagement drove

Third Sector is pleased to present, in partnership with GuideStar and America Forward, the new survey, “Towards a Performance-Driven Social Sector: A Service Provider Perspective on Trends in Government Contracting.”

Across the country, communities are changing the way they serve people in need. Local and state governments are taking a new look at how they contract for social services delivered to our most valuable citizens. Closer examination of current contracting practices may ultimately outline a path to healthier, safer, and more just communities, but only if all stakeholders have a voice.

The trend

In celebration of their 25th Anniversary, Living Cities recognized 25 Disruptive Leaders who are working to improve economic outcomes for low-income people in America’s cities. We are proud to share that Third Sector president Caroline Whistler was included on this remarkable list. Caroline was recognized for her leadership and work at Third Sector to bring [...]

By Nadia Ahmed

On August 28th, Third Sector was invited to the 7th annual Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) Executive Leadership Institute in Austin, TX. For the first time, the two-day conference, in addition to its sessions on the latest in the green and healthy housing movement, offered a parallel set of sessions on Pay for Success (PFS). This brought together government, foundations, providers, evaluators, and organizations with PFS expertise to discuss how such an innovative contracting model can work in the lens of healthcare.

Third Sector participated in a panel

Across the country, a growing number of governments are contracting for human services on a performance basis. Many are implementing innovative cross-sector models like Pay for Success (PFS), with many more considering the model for services in their own communities. This increased appetite for Pay for Success (PFS) partnerships has redirected taxpayer dollars toward interventions that provide data-driven solutions for social impact.

Because PFS is well suited to complex social challenges, there are situations where it is unrealistic to expect a single service provider or intervention to address the multifaceted