News and Insights

After two years of research, assessment, and design, the County of Santa Cruz Human Services Department (HSD) has launched two new two-year outcomes-oriented contracts with subsidized employment service providers.

Third Sector CEO and Co-Founder Caroline Whistler recently participated in a Twitter Town Hall with her five fellow nominees for Independent Sector's NGen Leadership Award for the 2019 Upswell Conference. The winner will be announced at the Upswell Conference in Chicago November 13-15. You can read Caroline's responses to a Q & A with Upswell [...]

Recently USAID published a guide for “Setting, Pricing, and Administering Performance Metrics in Pay-for-Results Programming.” The guide is intended to help those within USAID understand the basics of Pay-for-Results (PfR) contracts, their connection to current contracting practices and authorities, and how to think through the design of a new project. Third Sector contributed by sharing our experiences and how the lessons we learned in our work in domestic human services are equally applicable in the international development context.

Our experience shows that there are six critical aspects when developing an outcome-based

Third Sector recently co-hosted a webinar with two college access and success providers, uAspire and College Forward, to discuss “Pay for Success Lessons Learned from the Provider Perspective.” As providers have a track record of supporting students day-to-day and understand firsthand what resources are necessary to ensure that students enroll in and graduate from institutions of higher education, the webinar focused on providing a platform for providers to share lessons learned with the four Pay for Success in Higher Education cohort sites. In the webinar, uAspire reflected on the organization’s

Third Sector Managing Director, Kristel Kurtz, testified at an August 8th hearing held by the Boston City Council Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice (Docket #0781). The hearing, sponsored by Councilor President Andrea Campbell, was intended to review all grants and city funds available for violence prevention and intervention purposes, stemming from  Campbell’s concerns [...]

Third Sector, BUILD Initiative, and The Ounce recently hosted a webinar with the Administration for Children and Family’s Office of Child Care to discuss “Increasing Access, Quality, and Affordability of Early Care and Education through Systems Building and Change Management.” With 146 participants across 40 states and Washington DC, the webinar highlighted activities that states can engage in through their PDG B-5 grants to create a shared understanding and formalized coordination across agencies. Showcasing the journey of three states (Connecticut, Washington, and New York) and their lessons learned, this webinar outlined the tangible ways