Pay for Success (PFS) is an innovative contracting model that ties funding for an intervention to the achievement of outcomes or impacts in the community. PFS offers a way to deliver better outcomes, enabling government or other payors (for example, school districts or hospitals) to pay only for outcomes achieved – that is, to pay only for what works. The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National & Community Service, launched an initiative to support the expansion of PFS in 2014. The SIF commissioned Abt Global to develop a number of reports and special topic briefs to provide insights into the PFS program. 

This issue brief explores current Pay for Success project learnings related to capacity building and scale-up activities that are critical to meet the needs of service providers.