New Financing Emerges for Social Innovation

"Social impact bonds," which raise private investment capital to fund prevention and early-intervention social programs, with government repaying investors only if the work improves social outcomes, represent a "promising new product" that could become a multi-billion-dollar source of growth capital to fund effective social programs, a new white paper says.

"Social impact bonds offer an innovative way to scale what works," says the white paper, prepared by Social Finance Inc. and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.