Hi, Atlanta!

In true Atlanta fashion, sports and stadiums were a major topic of conversation in a luncheon last week filled with more than 100 key players from major health systems, nonprofits, and philanthropies. 

Dr. Leslie Walker, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington, pitched what might sound like a wild idea: What would happen if we used revenue bonds, like the kind cities use to fund professional sports stadiums, to fund health and well-being innovations? 

Her pitch is part of the Investing in Flourishing initiative, which has brought together people working in finance, health, and philanthropy to try to chart a new course for paying for health improvements that doesn’t solely rely on government or charitable funding but rather the savings that come from investing in health care and social services. 

Here’s where stadiums come in: Cities use municipal bonds to pay for new stadiums. Stadium authorities coordinate much of that, from putting up the actual stadium to developing parking and practice field plans, to managing eateries and shops and even naming rights. The coordination helps ensure that the stadium functions smoothly – and that bond funds can be paid back. 

Walker proposed a similar system that would use bonds to pay for improvements to community well-being. But instead of taxes on ticket and t-shirt sales, the bonds would be paid back from the downstream savings that hospital systems, governments, the school system, and criminal justice entities like jails garner from the upfront investments. 

“We’ve got to get past philanthropy and figure out how to tap commercial capital if we're going to have the money that has enough reach, intensity, and duration for population level impact,” said Tyler Norris, who works alongside Walker as a volunteer co-convenor of Investing in Flourishing. 

The idea grew out of a project based at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to facilitate the development of new business models to create better social outcomes. The group is working in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, to develop a proof of concept with the hopes of spreading it elsewhere. 

There’s an Atlanta connection, too. The Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University is helping Investing in Flourishing with fundraising and branding, translating the complex financial idea into language everyone can understand. 

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