Social Impact Bonds

If you are looking for information about Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), then this is the perfect publication for you. "The goal of a Social Impact Bond (SIB) is to improve social outcomes while effectively allocating scarce public-sector resources. SIBs are a public-private partnership in which private investors adopt the risk that a social program may not produce its desired outcomes" (p. 1). Topics covered include: what a SIB is; the difference between a Social Impact Bond and Pay for Success (PFS); history of SIBs; who the key players are-government agency, investor, intermediary, service provider, and independent evaluator; how SIB is constructed; the potential benefits; the potential pitfalls; and three examples of current Social Impact Bond initiatives. Since SIBs are a relatively new development in financing social programs, "[i]n the juvenile justice context, social impact bonds can offer an innovative way for government to shift resources from costly facilities to more effective community-based programs. All investments come with risks; one of the benefits of social impact bonds to government is that there is a degree of risk transference-if the program does not perform, the government is not on the hook financially" (p. 5).