§1397n–1 Social impact partnership application

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury must publish a notice in the Federal Register asking States and local governments to send in proposals for social impact partnership projects within 1 year after February 9, 2018, and will do this with help from the Federal Interagency Council on Social Impact Partnerships. A project must produce one or more clear, measurable results that give social benefits and save federal, state, or local money. The rule lists 21 kinds of outcomes that qualify, including things like increasing work and earnings for people unemployed more than 6 consecutive months, helping 16‑ to 24‑year‑olds find work, improving high school graduation, better birth and early-child health, reducing teen pregnancy, lowering preventable disease and emergency care, reducing child abuse and foster care entries or returns, cutting recidivism and homelessness, improving mental health, helping veterans and people with disabilities become independent and employed, increasing family financial stability, and other measurable outcomes a State or locality defines. The notice will require an application that explains the project goals, each intervention and expected results, strong evidence the intervention works, the target population and local need, expected benefits, projected costs and projected savings (including an estimate of federal savings by program and in total), and whether the State or local government is likely to realize any savings that accrue to them. The application must also show the delivery plan under a social impact partnership, provider and intermediary expertise and roles, experience raising private or philanthropic funds, budget, timeline, payment terms and how outcome payments are calculated, participant eligibility and enrollment, an independent evaluation design and clear, tamper‑proof metrics, evaluator independence and experience, service capacity to serve the proposed number, and plans to sustain successful interventions. If an intermediary is used, the application must describe its mission, experience, funding ability, data and outcome‑tracking systems, role in delivery, and how it will monitor progress. The notice will allow using a feasibility study created for another purpose as part of an application.