A Better Way: Community Efforts to Make Government Spending Work for People

While the current conversation in Washington is focused largely on cost-cutting efforts, for us, there’s a better set of solutions that instead direct spending to evidence-based programs and align funding with outcomes. Additionally, we come to this work not from the perspective of only saving taxpayer dollars but rather in support of the many Americans that rely on publicly funded health, education, and human services programs. When those programs deliver real results—living-wage jobs, Kindergarten readiness, and healthy birth outcomes—we all win.

This session is a conversation about two place-based outcomes financing efforts to expand evidence-based services to drive greater impact.

The first is FORWARD Platform. Founded in 2013, FORWARD designs and implements custom solutions for government and nonprofit leaders to increase efficiency and securely deliver resources to communities fast. Their work includes a portfolio of direct cash assistance programs that support eligible low-income individuals and families to improve outcomes ranging from health to housing stability to employment. One example is a statewide Guaranteed Basic Income program in California focused primarily on low-income families with children.

The second is Colorado Village Collaborative (CVC), an innovative community-based organization seeking to be part of the solution to the homelessness challenges in the Denver metro area. CVC operates low-barrier, trauma-informed tiny home villages. They operate with a Housing First approach, which provides housing without first requiring individuals to meet prerequisites. Research shows that when individuals are offered stable housing combined with supporting services—which CVC is designed to do—the vast majority stay housed after three years.

Maycomb Capital is providing outcomes financing to both FORWARD Platform and CVC. Outcomes financing–a form of impact private credit–is designed to support strategic expansion of human services organizations’ respective communities and their capability to draw down additional outcomes-aligned revenue from state and local government.