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| Social Impact Exchange | |
|---|---|
| Name | Social Impact Exchange |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder | Social entrepreneurs consortium |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Mission | Philanthropic infrastructure to scale evidence-based outcomes |
Social Impact Exchange Social Impact Exchange was a US-based nonprofit consortium focused on scaling evidence-based outcomes through market-oriented philanthropy, performance measurement, and outcome financing. It engaged philanthropists, foundations, intermediaries, and service providers to promote outcome-focused funding, data-driven evaluation, and cross-sector collaboration. The organization operated through campaigns, pilot projects, and convenings that linked capital to measurable social returns.
Social Impact Exchange functioned as a philanthropic intermediary and platform connecting Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation, and other institutional funders with outcome-focused initiatives. It emphasized metrics aligned with standards developed by organizations such as Urban Institute, RAND Corporation, Brookings Institution, The Bridgespan Group, and Nonprofit Finance Fund. The Exchange promoted models drawn from Social Impact Bond, Pay for Success, collective impact, and impact investing frameworks championed by leaders associated with Acumen Fund, Omidyar Network, Bain & Company, and Monitor Institute.
The organization emerged amid a wave of reform efforts following high-profile initiatives like the White House Office of Social Innovation and the proliferation of outcome-based pilots in the late 2000s. Early backers included program officers from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and funders linked to Atlantic Philanthropies. Social Impact Exchange convened advisors from policy centers including Brookings Institution, Harvard Kennedy School, Yale School of Management, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Carnegie Mellon University. Its timeline overlapped with expansions in United Way Worldwide innovations, AmeriCorps experimentation, and municipal pilots in places like New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago.
Programs promoted by the Exchange included asset-building pilots, youth development metrics, and outcome marketplaces modeled on the Social Impact Bond concept tested in United Kingdom jurisdictions like Peterborough Prison and adapted in US localities. Initiatives collaborated with intermediaries such as FSG, Tierney, Nonprofit Quarterly, and National Council of Nonprofits. The Exchange supported toolkits influenced by standards from Independent Sector, GuideStar (now Candid), Charity Navigator, and reporting norms advocated by Global Impact Investing Network and Principles for Responsible Investment. It partnered for demonstration projects with municipal entities including the City of Philadelphia, City of Boston, and county agencies in Los Angeles County.
Funding streams typically combined grants from private foundations, sponsorships by philanthropic networks like Philanthropy Roundtable, and in-kind contributions from consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company and Deloitte. The Exchange worked with legal and accounting partners including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to structure outcome contracts. Strategic partners encompassed research institutions like University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Collaboration with intermediaries such as Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Community Development Financial Institutions Fund supported community-level pilots.
Evaluation methods referenced evidence standards from What Works Clearinghouse, Campbell Collaboration, and academic research published through American Economic Association journals and policy outlets like The Brookings Institution and Urban Institute. Outcome measurement adopted metrics analogous to those used by Social Finance UK, New Profit, and Casey Family Programs. Impact assessment often relied on quasi-experimental designs promoted by scholars at Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, and Duke University. Reports cited by stakeholders compared program returns to benchmarks used by Harvard Business School case studies and evaluations commissioned by Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The Exchange's advisory council and board drew executives and philanthropists with affiliations to Council on Foundations, National Academy of Sciences, Aspen Institute, and leadership programs such as Echoing Green. Senior advisors included former staff from Office of Management and Budget policy teams and nonprofit leaders from The Salvation Army, YMCA of the USA, and Feeding America. Board collaborations featured leaders from Skoll Foundation, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and Ashoka networks.
Critics referenced debates about marketizing social service delivery, echoing critiques leveled at Social Impact Bond pilots in New York City and Massachusetts. Critics included commentators from The Nation, Jacobin, and scholars at University of California, Santa Cruz who questioned reliance on private capital and performance metrics. Concerns involved potential mission drift highlighted by watchdogs like ProPublica and tensions noted by policy analysts at Demos and Center for American Progress. Some community advocates and service providers affiliated with National Domestic Workers Alliance and Poor People's Campaign argued that outcome contracting prioritized measurable short-term outputs over long-term structural change.
Category:Nonprofit organizations based in the United States