Sorenson Impact Center Awarded $1.5M White House Grant

“We are honored to be awarded this grant alongside our exemplary peers in a joint effort to help advance President Obama’s goal of using data and evidence to achieve positive impacts at scale.”

Great news, I just found the longest acronym in the history of humanity: CNCSSIFPFSADP.

I know you think I’m joking and I just monster mashed the keyboard to come up with this acronym, but I swear it’s true. It stands for Corporation for National and Community Service’s (CNCS) Social Innovation Fund (SIF) Pay For Success (PFS) Administrative Data Pilot (ADP) and it’s a grant program highlighted by the White House that awards $1.5 million to organizations concentrating on breaking down data barriers within the world of social impact financing (aka Pay For Success financing).

Now, Pay for Success financing — which “aims to measurably improve the lives of people most in need by driving resources toward better, more effective programs” — is dependent upon data being shared and accessed freely without many of the legal and technical walls that currently exist, and that’s exactly where this grant program enters the picture.

One of the organizations selected? None other than University of Utah’s own Sorenson Impact Center, who will now be charged with applying $1.5 million in the best way they see fit.

“Pay for Success financing is a powerful tool, but it relies on the ability to effectively collect, integrate and analyze data,” said Jeremy Keele, managing director of the Sorenson Impact Center. “We are honored to be awarded this grant alongside our exemplary peers in a joint effort to help advance President Obama’s goal of using data and evidence to achieve positive impacts at scale.”

The Sorenson Center will dole out money in $250K chunks for technical assistance to organizations currently involved with a Pay for Success project, available in an open competition that begins in December 2016. Good luck to everyone.