A financing model of growing global interest and prevalence is the social impact bond. In this model, the working capital for an outcomes-based contract is provided by social investment. Performance management systems increase the ability of organisations to achieve the social outcomes specified in social impact bonds. However, the performance management function has not always been included as a feature of this model as it has been replicated around the globe, perhaps because it has not been emphasised in the literature.

Lili Elkins helps ROCA deliver a social impact bond, the sub-type of which is called a ‘pay-for-success’ contract in the US.

“There are not a lot of pay-for-success contracts in the world. This means that we get a lot of calls from people asking us about the provider experience and getting the contract. Most of those people don’t realize that we put together this performance management system over the past eight years and that it was so critical to the negotiation and delivery of this contract. The real challenge is to get them to understand how important using our own data is to knowing what we can deliver and being confident that we can deliver it._[i]”

[i] Interview with Lili Elkins, ROCA, 29 August 2014.