Project: Execution support for mission driven organisations
State of development: Current
Stage of development: Early stage
Type of instrument — Impact Bond: No; Outcomes Fund: No; Social Impact Incentives (SIINC): No; Social Impact Guarantee: No; Payment-by-results (no pre-financing): Yes; Technical Assistance and Market-building program: No; Other: 
Rationale for using outcome-based finance: We are not reinventing the wheel, the innovation is in the combination. 

Firstly, we matching experienced practitioners with incredible social entrepreneurs. People that have domain expertise, but also the wisdom to understand that successful execution is more than just what the numbers say. Secondly, Picanto is a group of individuals that is deeply invested in the impact of their work, hence the partnership piece being important. There is an absolute belief that the work must be able to continue sustainably without Picanto. Projects will be set up to offer enough support and time to make that realistic.

Lastly, the payment by results aspect gives space to work with innovative, diverse founders and creates access to a level of support not often available to these organisations.

We have designed the consultancy we and our network wish we had had access to. Execution might not be sexy, but it can be transformative
Key challenges to launch: "The model requires seed funding to create space for a payment by results model. There is clear demand and moving into a full scale prototype will help answer outstanding questions.

Contracting has so far been relatively simple, but as the scale and scope of projects gets more complicated robust contracting will be essential to success. Keeping it simple will be key to success and the accelerator is likely to be able to bring expertise to help.

There is an outstanding question around whether or not there should be a geographic or industry specialisation. As it stands, we are focused on challenges where we have deep expertise, but there is the opportunity to bring in further experts. Again, the accelerator could help think through this.

There is a training and research opportunity in this work, analysing what support is most likely to help organisations scale, the accelerator could help disseminate insights."
Social/developmental challenge: "The challenge is multifaceted. 

Exceptional execution is preventing great ideas from solving some of the world's biggest problems.

Smaller organisations can be wary of bringing in support, especially from established consultants. Consultancy is perceived as expensive without guaranteed results. Consultants will have to move onto next project at some point and are generally paid for advice, not to deliver the solution. Resource constrained organisations often do not feel they can take that risk. Payment by results mitigates that risk.

Some progressive impact investors are bringing in external support for organisations, but challenges still exist. Picanto's partners are people that have run charities and social businesses in LIMCs. They have lived through the challenges they are helping to solve.

Impact investors are discussing a lack of diversity in investees and recognise that this sort of support may mitigate some of the risks in stepping away from their normal founder profile."
Expected intervention model: "A group of social entrepreneurs/intrapreneurs were looking back over their past decade in the industry and recognised that many ideas with huge potential for impact failed due to poor execution. Conversations with social entrepreneurs, impact investors, advisors, consultants, philanthropists and academics confirmed that there was substance to this insight. 

Offering world class execution support to mission driven organisations can lead to the scaling of great interventions, whose impact may have otherwise been lost. This support is about operationalising strategy, building upon existing traction and good understanding of an issue. For example, helping a doctor with a fantastic solution to develop and execute a marketing plan.

Support is delivered as partnership, with the explicit objective that the work will continue without Picanto, generally with new roles created. The pay by results model means that resource constrained organisations can get access to support they might not otherwise get and also that Picanto is incentivised to ensure a lasting, impactful outcome that continues to add value.

There is also an opportunity to research the type of support that improves the chance of success for mission driven organisations. This research could then be shared with relevant stakeholders."
Policy sectors — Employment and private sector development: No; Education: No; Social protection: No; Criminal justice: No; Health: No; Agriculture: No; Environment and climate change: No; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: No; Energy: No; Humanitarian: No; Early Childhood Education: No; Other: Yes
Primary SDG goal: 5,8,13
Country income classification of beneficiaries — Low-income: Yes; Lower-middle-income: Yes; Upper-middle-income: No; High-income: No
Notes: Data for this pipeline project was last updated in August 2024
Delivery location: Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Rwanda, Ghana