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 report presents perspectives based on discussions with stakeholders in the Pay for Success field—including project implementers, federal agency staff, investors, and policy experts. It provides a strong knowledge base to inform CNCS’s Pay for Success work, thinking, and practices and to frame other planned data collection and knowledge-sharing activities.