Meet the IIU's New Challenge Prize Fellow: Lorah Jensen

What unique perspectives do you bring to this work, as someone entering the public service for the first time?

It’s exciting to be entering the public service at this point in my career, and I am grateful to be selected as a Challenge Fellow. My experience working directly with newcomers and low-income groups means I bring a grounded understanding of how policy translates into real-world impact. The bulk of my career has been working in a microlending organization and our success was due in part to a robust risk management framework, clearly defined outcomes, and a focus on building and maintaining great relationships with clients.

This experience is complimented by my research on barriers to social impact measurement in Canadian nonprofits, which helped me to further understand systemic and technical challenges that organizations face. This means I can contribute to designing and improving accountability frameworks in federal programs that prioritize outcomes.

What attracted you to apply to the Fellowship program?

I learned about Impact Canada while I was completing my previously mentioned research and started following the organization on LinkedIn. It was the first time learning about Challenge Prizes as an outcomes-based financial model, which considering my background, I found to be incredibly compelling.

When I saw the Challenge Fellow opportunity posted, I applied immediately! I knew that I wanted the chance to be part of a nimble, exciting team responsible for transforming how government operates.

In what way do you believe innovation and outcomes-based approaches can effectively support the Government of Canada’s response to big problems we face as a society?

Innovation is, in my opinion, both a habit and an environment. It requires curiosity, some calculated risks, and challenging biases and assumptions that no longer serve us. It also requires us to embrace failure and scale what works.

Outcomes-based approaches have accountability and transparency built-in. It’s an approach that focuses on the change we want to see rather than activities that government programs deliver. Through outcomes-based approaches, feedback loops and measurement lead to defined outcomes.

Therefore, innovation as a practice plus outcomes-based approaches equals one powerful strategy for solving problems that not only bridges the gap between policy and program work but also leads to building public trust.

What is an innovation solution to a problem, big or small, that has inspired you?

There are many exciting programs happening across Canada that continue to inspire me, particularly in the areas of impact investment and financing.

One example is Tapestry Community Capital, which is leveraging community bonds to tackle our growing housing shortage problem. This model connects investors to critical social and environmental projects, and shows great success. Another example is the Social Venture Exchange (SVX), which works as a kind of social stock market, and provides an impact investing platform for investors interested in financing organizations that generate positive social and environmental outcomes.