| Goods |
Funding from The Health Trust’s Disruptive Innovation grant of $150,000 spurred Catholic Charities effort with Step Up Silicon Valley to contract with Third Sector Capital Partners to launch the initiative. “This disruptive financing model has the potential to achieve both better social outcomes and fiscal savings for the County,” said Todd Hansen, The Health Trust’s COO. “Without the commitment of the County’s leadership and the work of our partners Step Up Silicon Valley/Catholic Charities and Third Sector Capital Partners, this important milestone could not have been reached.” As a sign that the philanthropic community is interested in the concept The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is committing $75,000 to match $75,000 in county funds. An additional $75,000 is needed to complete Phase III. |
| Notes |
Rothschild’s presentation coincided with a new grant competition funded by The Health Trust, which seeks to improve wellness and health in Silicon Valley. In February of 2012, The Health Trust hosted a Disruptive Innovation Summit with Harvard Business School Professor Clay Christensen. Christensen is widely credited with introducing the idea of disrup- tive innovation to describe new business approaches that introduce simplicity, convenience, accessibility, reliability, and affordability to replace previous prod- ucts or services that have grown complicated, expen- sive, and inaccessible. The Health Trust followed the Summit with a disruptive innovation Request for Proposals that sought out initiatives that had the power to “catalyze entrepreneurial thinking and implement creative solutions to existing health and social issues impacting the Silicon Valley.”
Kepferle, CEO of Catholic Charities, and Almaz Negash, the Managing Director of Step Up, prepared a response to examine the feasibility of pursuing so- cial impact bonds with the Santa Clara County gov- ernment. Step Up had previously received seed fund- ing from the City of San Jose to investigate Pay for Success and was excited to continue its exploration. As Negash recalled, Step Up sought new and inno- vative ways to reduce poverty in the region. She ex- plained, “We want to make sure that organizations are measuring outcomes rather than outputs, and be- lieve that a PFS model can help create an infrastruc- ture that our community can use for years to come.” Step Up’s grant application for $100,000 was success- ful, and the organization elected to engage Third Sector, a national nonprofit expert on PFS contract- ing, to conduct a feasibility analysis. https://www.thirdsectorcap.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/131118_Third-Sector-Capital-Partners_Santa-Clara-Case-Study.pdf |