White House Event on Nonprofit Finance to Be Streamed Live

A daylong seminar on “pay for success” projects, which offer a new way for government agencies to finance social programs, will take place at the White House on Friday—and will be streamed live on the Web.

In the pay-for-success approach, governments seek private investors and philanthropists to pay for social projects and offer them a return on their investment—but only if the projects achieve specified results.

The Nonprofit Finance Fund, which offers consulting services and loans to nonprofits, is playing host to the event, which will bring together government, nonprofit, foundation, and other representatives to explore opportunities for setting up pilot projects on the new approach. The event, co-sponsored by the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, will take place Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and can be viewed on the White House Web site.

The Rockefeller Foundation earlier this year awarded a $400,000 grant to the Nonprofit Finance Fund to study the “pay for success” concept. For more information and a suggested reading list, see the fund’s Web page on the topic.