I contributed a post this week to What Works In America’s Communities, a blog based on the recent book of the same name, which promotes innovative ideas that are helping to build stronger communities across the nation.
Pay For Success financing structures fund social programs via investor groups which share in the economic benefits of effective public investments. In the post, I argue that such structures have great promise for early childhood programs, which have been demonstrated to yield a high return on investment based on impressive outcomes for children who participate in them. However, a number of challenges must be navigated in order for PFS in early childhood to be successful. These challenges include ensuring that adequate data exists to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness, that returns are produced quickly enough to satisfy investors, and that programs are implemented with fidelity.
You can read the whole post and learn more about What Works here.