At the Federal and local levels several public entities are supporting new and evidence-based strategies to improve public services. These innovation funds have the explicit requirement to have and build evidence and the aspiration to make a case for reallocating public and private resources to proven effective programs. A strategy for lean times and a model for the long haul, these efforts support results-driven programs. The funds all include rigorous evaluation agendas and together represent a significant contribution to the knowledge-base of effective public programs. The leaders of these programs will describe this strategy, early impacts, and challenges. The panel will include three papers: Jonathan Greenblatt, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the Domestic Policy Council, on how the Federal government has developed six innovation funds, the overall strategy, and some of the promising early findings across these programs. Paul Carttar, Director, Social Innovation Fund, Corporation for National and Community Service, will describe the Federal Social Innovation Fund (SIF) and the ambitious evaluation agenda for the SIF. Kristin Morse, Deputy Executive Director, New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, will describe the innovation fund that it operates out of the New York City Mayor’s Office, its successful antipoverty programs, and the national replication strategy that it has adopted with the support of a SIF grant. Julie Boatright Wilson, Harry Kahn Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at Harvard University Kennedy School, will serve as discussant. Wilson is a longtime policy expert for the Innovations in American Government Award and brings a broad perspective to the discussion based on the Kennedy School’s 25 years of looking at government’s most promising programs. The New York City Center for Economic Opportunity is the winner of the 2011 award.