Some of what I do those days is to find a way to run an innovative, sustainable development-oriented network. So this requires thinking about every aspect of it, including partners, human resources, but also money. And money is an issue. For the kind of projects that I am working on, starting small with a few grants should not be so much of a problem : Government and private agencies often have an envelope dedicated to projects they would want to throw money at. But if this is a good safety net for starters, it is neither scalable nor sustainable. And the whole point of my internship is to build a scalable and sustainable system! One solution is called social impact bonds. What is it? Well to put it simply, it is to 1) ask for private small investment, 2) coming up with a working prototype, and 3) asking the public sector to fund the project entirely. This kind of fundings is also called pay-for-success bonds for the following reason The principle of a social impact bond is that not one but a gathering of stakeholders. All of them agree in advance that the private sector will pay for the upfront costs, and the public sector only has to pay the whole project if the prototype ensures that once the project is up and running, it will result on government savings. The public sector in theory than does not lose any money, as it pays a smaller amount than what it saves with the new solution. The private sector is paid back entirely once the project-holders get the money, and gains a good reputation in the process. The Project holders gain sustainable fundings and a proof-of-concept. It is kind of a win-win(-win) situation provided that the prototype actually yields good enough results. This system is already working on some level, including in works for the UK's ministry of justice and NYC's justice department: . But it has some downsides. First, how do you measure success? Sometimes, showing that something works is easy, sometimes it is really difficult to come up with tangible “success stories”, especially in the social entrepreneurship world. Second, it only works for projects working on a short to medium term. If what you are trying to implement only shows some results after some years, it might be hard to get the initial fundings and to show a cause-to effect relationship between what you did and the end result. Third, government fundings is usually reliable, but it is not always the case. Only in France, the fundings for medium size projects is decreasing and a lot of government-funded initiatives are now struggling to get money. And let’s not talk about some countries that are really struggling with their economies! The conclusion is: no system is perfect but this one offers the advantages of being relatively reliable, relatively sustainable, and to not depend on corporation waiting for opportunities for whitewashing. An before we come up with a revolutionary idea, this one is the best solution yet. Sources come from the economist, the harvard magazine, wikipedia, and the state of hawaï's "study on the feasibility of using social impact bonds to fund early learning programs" if you want to know more, this document is really well done
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