Third Sector and Ropes & Gray LLP Named As Boston Business Journal’s Partners of the Year

On Wednesday, September 10th, Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc. and Ropes & Gray LLP, were named Boston Business Journal’s Partners of the Year. On an annual basis, the Boston Business Journal honors the connections between businesses and nonprofits in the region. Third Sector’s Managing Partner, John Grossman, and Ropes & Gray’s Partner, Winthrop Minot, accepted the award at the Boston Business Journal’s Annual Corporate Citizenship Summit held in Boston.

Ropes & Gray LLP is a global law firm with over 1,100 employees and has received numerous awards for its pro-bono services

The following is excerpted from Next Billion’s Impact Investing Insights series. You can watch Rick’s interview here.

Goldman Sachs recently made headlines by investing in Roca, a Massachusetts nonprofit that tries to keep young men out of jail. The investment was notable not just because Goldman was focusing on social impact, but because it also hopes to make a profit. Under the seven-year deal, Roca will try to help 1,000 young men – and if they spend 22 percent fewer days incarcerated than their peers, the state will save enough to pay back Goldman’s $9 million

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Roca, Inc. and Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc. launched the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice PFS Initiative in Springfield, Massachusetts on Tuesday. Local partners and supporters spoke at the event, including Sheriff Michael Ashe of Hampden County, Domenic Sarno, Mayor of Springfield and Alex Morse, Mayor of Holyoke. Jarne Jones, a participant in Roca’s Springfield program, also spoke about his experience.

Press coverage of the event included:

Roca to prepare 300 Western Massachusetts young men for work, avoidance of crime, through unique state-funded program – MassLive via The Republican
Massachusetts Begins Juvenile

“Mass. program ties nonprofits’ pay to success”
by Dan Adams – The Boston Globe – August 1, 2012

Two groups of nonprofit social service providers have been selected by the state to tackle chronic problems with homeless people and juvenile criminals under an innovative new program that will reward the agencies if they can prove their techniques work, or pay them little or even no money if they fail.

The program, called Social Innovation Financing, operates on a simple “pay for success” model, in which nonprofits must demonstrate that by keeping youth from being reincarcerated or

“For Ambitious Nonprofits, Capital to Grow”
by DAVID BORNSTEIN – New York Times – June 27, 2012

Imagine that you’re an entrepreneur running a chain of coffee bars and you want to raise capital to open up in new locations. You meet a potential investor, and he says, “I’d love to finance your business, but only the chai latte operation, not the coffee, and only to support drinks you sell in Cleveland next year.”

It might sound absurd, but this is the kind of thing that people running nonprofit organizations hear all the time. Whether

“Investors May Fund Social Programs:
State Exploring ‘Pay For Success’; Profits Would Be Tied to Cost Savings”
by TODD WALLACK – Boston Globe – June 27, 2011

Massachusetts could be among the first states in the country to raise money for social services by offering investors the chance to earn profits on programs they establish.

The approach is known as “social impact bonds” or “pay for success.” It is based on the idea that if programs backed by investors succeed in reducing, for example, the number of inmates in prison or the homeless population, governments will realize big savings, which they can tap