Public-Private Partnerships for Innovation and Evaluation James A. Riccio MDRC OAS IASPN Technical Consolidation Meeting Mexico City August 10-11, 2011

Social policy research firm: non-profit Headquartered in New York City Mission: Increase knowledge of “what works” to improve well-being of low- income people Leader in use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to test new social policies Involved in many public-private initiatives What is MDRC? 2

Opportunity NYC—Family Rewards (CCT pilot) Federal Social Innovation Fund (SIF) UK Employment Retention and Advancement demonstration (UK ERA) 3 examples of public-private collaboration 3

4 Example #1: CCT Program Opportunity NYC—Family Rewards Planning partners: Local government: NYC Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) (part of Mayor’s Office) Evaluation firm: MDRC Program operator: Seedco (private, non-profit)

Planning grant for MDRC and Seedco to work with NYC government (CEO) Learning exchange with Mexico (Oportunidades) Design document prepared by MDRC Extensive consultations with other government agencies, experts, academics Rockefeller Foundation funded the design phase, which included… 5

Private donors paid all program and evaluation costs (many funders) Funds channeled through non-profit called: The Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC MDRC and Seedco: Contract with Mayor’s Fund City agency (CEO) managed the contrac t Collaborative decision-making 3-year program completed; 5-year evaluation ongoing Full pilot launched in

Core collaborators: NYC Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC MDRC Example #2: Federal Social Innovation Fund 7

What is the “Social Innovation Fund”? Federal initiative to scale up of evidence- based programs operated by non-profits Each federal $1 must be matched by $3 in non-federal funds (usually private funds) Where evidence is “promising” but not “strong,” initiative must be evaluated to build stronger evidence MDRC, CEO, and Mayor‘s Fund won 1 of 11 federal grants in national competition 8

MDRC-CEO SIF Projects: 5 in 8 cities 1. CCT program (begins fall 2011) Family Rewards (revised version): NYC and Memphis 2. Career advancement program WorkAdvance: NYC, Cleveland, Youngstown, and Tulsa 3. Public housing employment program Jobs-Plus: NYC and San Antonio 4. Tax-time savings incentives program SaveUSA: NYC, Newark, San Antonio, Tulsa 5. Education & work internship for disconnected young adults Project Rise: NYC, Kansas City (KS), Newark 9

Federal and private dollars go to Mayor’s Fund CEO (government) oversees the project CEO and MDRC collaborated on design of models and selection of cities CEO, MDRC, and local funding partners selected local non-profit providers MDRC is providing technical assistance to local non-profits and is conducting the evaluations CEO and MDRC are collaborating on fundraising Structure of the collaboration 10

Example #3: UK ERA ( ) Employment Retention and Advancement project: Goals: (1) Test innovation to improve job stability and earnings (2) build UK capacity to do RCTs Initially conceived by MDRC and UK Treasury Rockefeller funded MDRC to engage in early exploratory conceptual work with Treasury Treasury subsequently funded full-scale design effort and evaluation (MDRC with UK partners) Close collaboration with government (Dept. for Work and Pensions) throughout project 11

1.Broader range of ideas and expertise 2.Spreading the risk, so can try bolder and potentially more controversial projects 3.Broader range of stakeholders and potential supporters of an initiative (if it works) 4.Possible expansion of resource base to conduct more pilots (leveraging funding) Conclusions: Some possible benefits of public-private collaboration 12