Project Partners
Impact
Funding was provided to enhance the YMCA's Vocational and Soft Skills Programme (VaSSP) for 1 year, funded by the TL Whang Foundation and guaranteed by the Lorinet Foundation through the Social Impact Guarantee (SIG) model.
The funding was used to introduce enhancements to the VaSSP's internship, social interventions, and learning programme components in June 2021. These enhancements aimed to increase the placement rate of youth-at-risk into education and employment after the six-month curriculum.
Although YMCA couldn't conduct in-person training and community-building activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Singapore in 2021, these interventions were transitioned to be conducted over Zoom, and an additional run of VaSSP was held between May 2022 and January 2023.
YMCA's benchmark placement rate before the enhancements was estimated to be 62%, based on 5 years of performance data from 2017 to 2021. At the end of 5 runs of the enhanced VaSSP SIG, it was found that the enhancements led to a 10% increase in the number of youth placed in education and employment - 56 out of 78 enrolled youths (72%).
For more detailed information, please refer to the project fact sheet below and the article here. You can download the case study at this link.
Social Impact Guarantee
FACT SHEET
Problem Statement
According to figures published by the National Youth Council, close to 40,000 youths in Singapore were unemployed in 2019. Inability to support these youths in education or employment could result in long-term social and economic exclusion, leading to downstream costs for both society and the government.
Youth who cannot sustain employment or education have reported facing barriers, including a lack of professional experience, personal factors outside of work that limit their ability to succeed, and the need for a tailored approach to translate their learning into action.
Therefore, the YMCA's VaSSP will be enhanced to address the persistent challenges that youths face and improve their outcomes by providing more internship experiences, extending their social intervention, and enhancing the learning programme.
Summary
The Challenge:
- Lack of professional experience and misguided expectations about the job search process and working life.
- Personal factors outside of work that inhibit the ability to succeed, such as dysfunctional families or a lack of social support.
- The need for a tailored approach to bridge the youth's learning into action.
The Solution:
- Enhancement of the Vocational and Soft Skills Programme (VaSSP).
- Offered a 4-6 week internship component to VaSSP.
- Extended social intervention through a behaviorally-informed approach.
- Implemented an enhanced learning programme in partnership with Bold@Work.
The Results:
- Youth-at-risk participated in enhanced VaSSP.
- Impact was evaluated based on placement rate.
- A guarantee was paid to the donor based on the placement rate not achieved.
Approach
Tri-Sector Associates partnered with YMCA to design an intervention and funding model to address the persistent issues that youths faced. This involved several stages:
Prepare
- Analysing data from past iterations of SIG to set meaningful outcomes and targets.
- Organising focus group discussions.
- Conducting a literature review of programmes that have educational and employment outcomes for NEET youths.
- Estimating the economic benefits of outcomes based on research.
- Demonstrating the social return on investment for programmes enhancements.
Assess
- Evaluating new methods to improve intervention, such as by incorporating behavioral science interventions.
- Developing a financial model that can project different scenarios.
- Creating an evaluation plan to ensure that results are rigorously and objectively analyzed.
- Establishing an ongoing governance plan to ensure swift corrective action.
- Enhancing YMCA's capabilities in data reporting and funder management.
Evaluate
- Supporting data analysis from each run of VaSSP SIG.
- Collaboratively aligning with the Guarantor and the Funder on the project outcomes.
About The Programme
In the YMCA VaSSP's 6-month curriculum, youth-at-risk who are not in education or employment (NEET) are equipped with essential employability skills and exposed to social activities that help them build positive friendships with their mentors and volunteers. Through social work intervention, YMCA reintegrates youth-at-risk into society and contributes to the building of an inclusive community in Singapore.
The SIG was officially launched in June 2021 after finalizing its design with TSA, focusing on alignment around the impact outcomes of the VaSSP enhancements. With the SIG model, YMCA was able to benefit beyond just receiving additional funding. Throughout the project implementation and launch process, YMCA benefited from the capacity-building capabilities provided by all other parties in this project. For example, YMCA was able to further refine the programme's outreach and referral strategy during monthly check-ins with the funders.
The finalized target outcome was the increase in the placement rate of the VaSSP from its benchmark rate of 62% without the enhancements to 75% with enhancements. Based on this targeted outcome, the guarantee payment per placement not achieved was SGD $15,000, up to a maximum of $150,000.
How the Social Impact Guarantee (SIG) works
A Social Impact Guarantee (SIG) is similar to a money-back guarantee for social impact donations. It allows donors to ensure that their contributions achieve the intended social outcomes, with the option of receiving a portion of the donation back if the outcomes are not met. SIGs are issue-area agnostic and can be applied across different social issues – from the environment to education, employment, and mental health.
https://trisector.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Social-Impact-Guarantee-11-okt.json
1.
Tops up existing funding to fund enhancement upfront; an increase in impact level is guaranteed.
2.
Delivers and continuously improves enhanced programme.
3.
Reimburses the cost of the enhancements, if outcomes are not achieved. This will take the form of a recycled donation to another iteration of the programme or another similar programme of the Impact Funder’s choice.
Upfront Funder
TL Whang Foundation
Service Provider
YMCA
Guarantor
The Lorinet Foundation
Other Social Service Providers
Figure 1: Structure of the Social Impact Guarantee
A Social Impact Guarantee (SIG) functions in the following manner:
- A donor agrees to provide funding to a Social Service Provider to deliver a service.
- The donor, service provider, and guarantor agree on the social outcomes the programme will aim to deliver and the terms of the guarantee.
- The service provider delivers the programme.
- Outcomes are rigorously measured, and final results are reported.
- If the programme does not achieve the agreed-upon outcomes, the guarantor pays the donor for any impact not achieved, according to the terms of the agreement. These funds can then be kept, used to try again with a new iteration of the programme, or to achieve similar outcomes with another programme.
Whether guarantee payments are triggered depends on the achievement of agreed-upon outcome metrics. To incentivize the service provider to perform their best, the SIG typically covers only the impact achieved above the baseline of previous years.
