Social Impact Bonds
Foster innovative solutions for social problems
What are Social Impact Bonds?
The social challenges of our times are highly varied: unemployment, homelessness and health problems among many others. These issues call for innovative solutions. New approaches need to be tested. Social Impact Bonds are the new financing instruments that enable just that.
How do they help?
Prefinancing of social projects is an essential part of Social Impact Bonds. They reduce both the financial risk as well as the financial burden for public institutions to test new approaches solving existing challenges. They are an innovative financial instrument that promotes cooperation between the social, public and private sector.
How do they work?
Public authorities, like ministries or city councils, start Social Impact Bonds. These bonds explain problems and set goals to solve them. Social organisations come up with ideas to fix these problems. Investors or charitable groups, such as the ERSTE Foundation, give money at the beginning to support these ideas. The public authorities only pay the money back if the goals are achieved. This system checks the results and helps make sure the projects are successful.
Project description
The objective of the ‘Ziel Assistenz – ava jetzt’ Social Impact Bond was to help women with little education and work experience return to work after maternity leave or family care. It also aimed to reduce the shortage of support staff for people with disabilities in Austria.
Who was involved:
- The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection started the Social Impact Bond
- Erste Social Finance managed and coordinated the project
- The ERSTE Foundation gave the money to start the project
- atempo, a non proft organisation, carried out the work
Project timeline: May 2020 - March 2024
Project cost: EUR 300,000
Testimonial
atempo
atempo supports the independence and quality of life of people with disabilities. At the same time, unemployed women and mothers are given a new opportunity to find paid work. They receive professional training in assistance to help people with disabilities. This enables them to engage in meaningful and flexible work. The assistant placement and training platform ava was established for this purpose.
How to reach us
If you are interested in the subject of Social Impact Bonds or want to get involved yourself, please contact us. We will be happy to give you more information:
Support & Partners
This financing benefits from a guarantee funded by the European Union under the Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).