Social Finance

Since 2011, Social Finance has raised $400 million for philanthropic efforts. ³ As of 2025, Social Finance has 120 employees based in offices in Austin, Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. ⁴

Background

Social Finance was founded in 2011 by Ronald Cohen, David Blood, and Tracy Palandjian. The organization was modeled after Social Finance U.K. based in London. Cohen and Blood worked for Social Finance U.K. and organized the first Social Impact Bonds, financial partnerships between government entities and nonprofits that support specific philanthropic outcomes such as reducing criminal recidivism rates. Private investors in Social Impact Bonds generate profits based on how well they accomplish philanthropic goals set by government agencies. Cohen and Blood recruited Palandjian, a former McKinsey analyst, to help launch the American organization Social Finance. ^{1 2 3}

Activities

Social Finance is best known for its Social Impact Investments, charitable funds designed to combat specific social problems that receive funding and support from individuals, investment funds, and government entities. Many of these funds are donor-advised funds (DAFs) directed toward goals like “advancing equity in Greater Boston” or developing poverty-relief efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area. ⁵

Social Finance manages numerous education and workplace training funds, including the Google Career Certificates Fund which generated a claimed $1 billion in wage gains for over 20,000 workers. ⁶ As of 2025, Social Finance’s workforce portfolio aims to finance job training for over 36,000 individuals. ⁷

Social Finance runs programs to maximize the efficiency of government programs using taxpayer funds. Some of its programs are paid services while others are charitable funds, including the New Jersey Pay It Forward Program to upskill workers and Accelerating Guaranteed Income in California to develop a five-year basic guaranteed-income pilot program. Since 2014, Social Finance has worked with over 80 state, county, and municipal governments. ⁸

In 2024, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a component of the National Institutes of Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, launched the HEalth care Rewards to achieve improved OutcomES (HEROES) Program that it claims would, “expand and improve preventive care, [and] reduce health care costs…” ⁹ ARPA-H hired Social Finance for consulting services for its new program. ⁹

In 2023, Social Finance established the Social Finance Institute, a platform for connecting individuals and philanthropic organizations. ¹⁰

Funding

In 2023, Social Finance earned $39,216,945 in revenue, with $24,185,912 coming from charitable donations and $11,064,040 coming from program services. That year, Social Finance reported $432,649 in government funding. ¹¹

Social Finance has received funding from for-profit corporations including Google, Bank of America, the Macquarie Group, Prudential, and Walmart. Social Finance has received grants from numerous nonprofit organizations including the Truist Foundation, Blue Meridian Partners, Arnold Ventures, the Omidyar Network, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Pershing Square Foundation, the Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Dakota Foundation, the Frederick D. DeLuca Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Episcopal Health. ¹²

Social Finance’s lists of “partners” include the City of San Antonio, the State of Massachusetts, the State of New Jersey, the California Department of Social Services, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood, the Children’s Trust Fund, Western Governors University, the Johnson and Johnson Foundation, the Shapiro Foundation, and Merit America. ¹²

Leadership

Kirstin Hill is the president and chief operating officer of Social Finance. She was previously a first mover fellow at the Aspen Institute and worked in numerous roles for over 20 years at Merrill Lynch. ¹³