As of February 2019, Third Sector Asia will be officially rebranded as Tri-Sector Associates – a homegrown Asia and Oceania focused brand that will continue to be a global collaboration with Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc. Third Sector is one of the leading organizations in the US in implementing innovative Pay for Success contracting models that drive government resources toward high-performing social programs. Since 2017, its affiliate Third Sector Asia has been exploring how to best adapt the Pay for Success model to the social sector in Asia and Oceania. …

Third Sector CEO Caroline Whistler spoke at the Workforce Frontiers Symposium in San Diego about our work with the San Diego Workforce Partnership and how result driven pay-for-performance approaches can actually improve people’s lives. Caroline talks about the need to embrace accountability but develop flexible and innovative approaches to human-centered on-the-ground funding. She demonstrates that a different way of funding the system is possible and aligning resources with measurable results will effectively help communities in need. Watch her full speech below.

The recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article “Social Impact Bonds: More Than One Approach” highlights the work of Santa Clara’s Project Welcome Home and Los Angeles County’s Just-in-Reach project, both of which Third Sector has been deeply engaged.  The article discusses how social impact bonds differ between projects and geographies, and how those differences impact implementation. More specifically, it points to Project Welcome Home as a great example of multiple funders working at difference risk levels and roles. And among the authors’ recommendations, they suggest that in the design of Pay for …

Impact Management Skills Training January 30, 2019 in Boston, MA Description The Impact Management Skills Training is intended for those who seek to enhance their ability to generate positive outcomes for people and systems. Participants will improve their ability to get and use insights from their work to maximize positive impact. During the one-day training we will present frameworks and examples, then work through their application using real field experience and participant-driven exercises and case studies of relevance to participants. Participants will benefit both from international third party standards relevant …

On December 13th, the Stanford Social Innovation Review published “Development Impact Bonds: There’s Still No Free Lunch” by Kevin Starr. Please read our response below. Dear Kevin, Thank you for starting a conversation on development impact bonds (DIBs), as well as Pay for Success (PFS) more generally. As a practitioner of PFS, I wanted to share a perspective on the topic formed by witnessing the field change over the last four years. Although I echo your skepticism that DIBs are a panacea, it is important to note that these efforts have …

Coaching has become an increasingly popular method of intervention and has proven effective in a variety of settings. Economic Mobility Pathways (“EMPath”), for example, has codified a mentorship model that uses holistic goal-setting and individualized coaching to support people’s journeys out of the cycle of poverty. I first encountered the EMPath model during Third Sector’s work with the Department of Transitional Assistance on the Young Parents Program. There, we used EMPath’s Bridge to Self-Sufficiency (the “Bridge”) as a way to define and measure progress in a more nuanced way than …

This is the third and final blog post in our three-part Race and Data series. In part one, we reflected on the potential dangers of over-relying on easily accessible data due to systemic racism, flawed collection, or biased analysis. In part two, we explored how thoughtful disaggregation can begin to mitigate those dangers. And finally, in part three we will explore how adding meaning to data, developed by engaging community voice, can tell an even more accurate and holistic story about what quantitative data are saying and, even more importantly, …

Like most industries, government-funded social services agencies have become increasingly data-driven in recent years. This increased use of data has allowed agencies to better understand the needs of the people they serve and allocate resources more effectively. However, as we outlined in our last blog post, there are risks to an overreliance on data, especially data that may itself be biased. Here, we’ll discuss one of the ways that government can and should be using the myriad data they collect through administering social services to identify and address racial, ethnic, …

“Hi Siri – what’s the weather today?” “Okay Google, is there life on Mars?” “Alexa, add toothpaste to my cart.” It is hard to argue that data and technology have not fundamentally changed our day-to-day lives, in many ways for the better. Therefore, the growing application of data in the social sector has created general excitement across various stakeholders – government officials, service providers, and philanthropic partners. From assessing policy decisions to determining resource allocations, the use of data and evaluation is slowly becoming the norm rather than the exception. …

In early October, Third Sector and our data partner, Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP), convened state and local government leaders from around the country to discuss effective steps to launching and sustaining Integrated Data Systems (IDS), as well as deploying that data to improve community outcomes. This was the third time the Empowering Families Learning Community convened over the past year, and the seminar showcased the progress of governments in identifying and supporting innovative models for improving outcomes for families. The Empowering Families Learning Community was joined by both …

Third Sector is pleased to announce it has been awarded $247,375 to improve community health from the Blue Shield Foundation of California’s Exploring the Value of Prevention grant. Third Sector with our partner, the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI), received funding to develop financing strategies to benefit multi-sector partnerships that improve community health. This funding brings together two leading organizations in their respective fields to collaborate on the pressing need to leverage siloed public funding streams. The project is one of sixteen that has received support to focus …

This post originally appeared on Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Blog and is co-authored by Deirdre Flynn, Associate Director, Pay for Success Program. The Pay for Success (PFS) field has gone through astonishing changes in the years since the first contracts launched in the US. Those early projects (Rikers Island, Massachusetts Juvenile Justice, New York CEO, Cuyahoga) all only wavered from the original concept in minor ways. In brief, those projects all had payment based on a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) evaluation with the vast majority of success payments linked to the formal …

Signed into law this summer, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act – also known as Perkins V – includes a number of provisions that promote innovation, modernization and the alignment of workforce skills with labor-market needs (see our full summary here). Notably, the legislation also includes the first-ever federal authorization of Career and Technical Education (CTE) funding for Pay for Success. This change unlocks the potential to accelerate gains in economic mobility for millions of Americans. Every year, $1.1 billion in CTE funding flows from …

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education announced it awarded grants to a cohort of eight government organizations for a Preschool Pay For Success feasibility pilot, to explore how the Pay for Success (PFS) model can improve access to high-quality preschool and improve outcomes for children most at risk. Third Sector partnered with three of the eight preschool PFS feasibility grantees, Cuyahoga County (Ohio), Mecklenburg County (North Carolina), and Santa Clara County (California), and participated in a learning community. The goal of the Department of Education grant was to “bring …

Through our work with governments, we think critically about how social services are contracted. Data availability is often a limiting factor in the project design or in the evaluation of a project’s success. Many of our projects benefit from timely access to data in order to evaluate the unmet need, identify characteristics of the intended beneficiary population, and define outcomes. Additionally, lack of data availability results in high transaction costs for one-off data use agreements, and decreased data value due to lag times. Third Sector’s work is often dependent on …

In late June, the Department of Commerce created an opportunity to share input on the Federal Data Strategy by requesting comments on the Cross-Agency Priority goal of Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset. The Department of Commerce specifically requested comments on best practices related to the four pillars of the federal data strategy: Enterprise Data Governance Access, Use, and Augmentation Decision-Making and Accountability Commercialization, Innovation, and Public Use. Given that data is a critical component of Third Sector’s work in outcomes-oriented contracting, we were happy to share perspective from our …

In late June, the Department of Commerce created an opportunity to share input on the Federal Data Strategy by requesting comments on the Cross-Agency Priority goal of Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset. The Department of Commerce specifically requested comments on best practices related to the four pillars of the federal data strategy: Enterprise Data Governance Access, Use, and Augmentation Decision-Making and Accountability Commercialization, Innovation, and Public Use. Given that data is a critical component of Third Sector’s work in outcomes-oriented contracting, we were happy to share perspective from our …

At Third Sector, we work where “money meets the people.” We build data-informed feedback loops to tie government funding to the achievement of measurable social outcomes. Any program that can incentivize the achievement of real progress on social issues gets us excited, and the recent Opportunity Zone legislation has just that promise. Opportunity Zones are a community development program authorized by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017), with the goal of encouraging patient capital to invest in long-term community development projects. The federal legislation allows newly authorized Opportunity …

As a senior in high school, I selected Northeastern University for their emphasis on experiential learning, not knowing then how I would fare in a 9-5 position or taking a six-month hiatus from classes. At Northeastern, co-op is considered part of the curriculum, with courses covering everything you’re expected to know – from how to conduct yourself in an interview to what to wear on the job. In my first week however, I realized that no amount of studying would have prepared me for the transition to a full-time role. …

Long before Third Sector formally committed to exploring diversity, equity, and inclusion through a critical examination of our culture, norms, and client-facing approaches, we recognized the importance of building a diverse team. We know that diverse teams perform better, and we also value the unique perspectives that surface from a group of individuals with varying lived experiences. As is still typical recruitment practice, our hiring process originally required the submission of a resume at the onset of the application process. However, in an effort to build a more diverse team, …