What is the name of your solution?
OutsideConnection
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
We provide previously incarcerated individuals with job opportunities by assembling
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Pittsburgh, PA, USAIn what country is your solution team headquartered?
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Mass incarceration is one of the largest problems in America today, and with 19 million Americans that currently have a criminal record, it's easy to see why. In fact, the U.S. incarceration rates are 5 times higher than most countries. Each year, more than 650,000 previously incarcerated individuals reenter society, prompting a burning question: what will happen to them? Statistically, only about half of those released find employment. Unfortunately, a portion of those who do not find employment end up recommitting an offense, a practice known as recidivism. From researching mass incarceration, I learned that bolstering second-chance employment is the best way to reduce cyclical incarceration. By having a stable job and income, reentrants are more likely to live successfully. Employment also vastly decreases recidivism odds from 52% to 16%. Staggering. Although this problem is entirely relevant on the macro level, it’s also something important to me personally.
Even at a young age, I baked alongside reentrants in my family’s bakery, thinning dough, rolling lady locks, and baking cookies. Today, I run our family business –from the hiring, to the baking–and our reentrants have become more than just employees; they’ve become our family.
When I started OutsideConnection, our family business was one of the only businesses in Pittsburgh that would hire reentrants. It was incredibly difficult for them to find jobs, and they were continually turned away from positions because of their criminal records. Although this improved our own hiring process, it was a disappointment for reentrants who had different skill sets: construction, IT, communications, and more. Many of our employees in the bakery grew up without support, whether that be financially or in the home. Many were born into generational poverty, and some grew up as orphans. As I looked into the problem further, I realized that this issue wasn’t just a locality: it occurred all across the United States. I realized that something needed to be done, and that incarceration isn’t caused by bad people; it's a result of a bad system.
Most existing solutions workaround the main problem, and attempt to place reentrants in whatever job is available. However, these interventions have seen limited success among reentrants, due to a limitation of companies with transparent fair-chance hiring policies. At OutsideConnection, we are taking a different approach: we’re developing a solution that prioritizes reentrant retention rates and accessibility. We allow reetrants to access jobs that have the highest probability of hiring them, and that offer them social mobility. This approach contrasts with mainstream proposals–that simply place reentrants sporadically–to create entirely novel, reentry framework.
What is your solution?
OutsideConnection operates by first identifying companies that are committed to fair-chance hiring. We do this in multiple ways: first, by utilizing resources like the Second Chance Business Coalition, a list of companies that have signed a “fair-chance pledge,” and also by reaching out to local and large corporations alike to weigh interest. After identifying prospective employers, we use AI-integrated web-scraping to cultivate spreadsheets of job positions pulled from all across the internet. We have the power to sort and filter through all external jobs online, and pick out the exact positions that are known to be fair-chance. We can do this for hundreds of job positions at a time. As of now, we are the first and only organization who uses this method to source and list job positions, so we reserve the right to privacy of the exact details. After assembling files of job positions, we funnel the positions in the backend of our high-quality database, where we store the data to be displayed on the site. We then sort through job positions using CMS and Finsweet integrations that allow us to search data using certain criteria. Essentially, the idea was to replicate a leading job-site like Indeed or LinkedIn, but with about 5% of the costs, and a sole focus on reentry hiring. Our current hosting plans allow for the possibility to list up to 10,000 listings. Past that, I have planned out a data hosting program through Airtable that allows for cloud-based hosting of our job positions, so that they are stored externally, but are able to be accessed in real time.
The other side of OutsideConnection’s success is derived from our extensive network. We’ve set up our organizational model for success by putting together a team across the country. From calling, emailing, and diligently researching hiring practices, we’ve grown our operations to over 17 states and 31 cities. We work with over 10 organizations; some of which service the entire country, while others focus on certain states or regions. We’ve also made an effort to specifically target cities that are affected by incarceration, like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. In the future, I hope to expand OutsideConnection to every left-behind corner of the United States, helping to bring our innovation to those who need it most. We distribute our web-based platform to these organizations as a free resource, allowing them to place reentrants in their region incredibly fast and economically. This distribution model allows us to distribute our service in a streamlined, effective way, ensuring that through organizations, we can reach and help the most amount of people. As a non-profit organization, we don’t charge a service fee for use. Rather, we hope that through our advanced technology and unique mission, that we can create a world where anyone can be anything–no matter what they’ve been given or the hardships they’ve faced.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Individuals who return from prison and attempt to reenter the workforce are met with strict challenges because of their criminal records. These individuals seek jobs to support themselves, but have a difficult time finding opportunities because of limitations on where they can work. Recently, organizations have formed to compile fair-chance companies in one place. From this, reentrants can easily view which companies are open to fair-chance hiring.
Reentrants earn significantly less compensation per week, 1 year after release compared to the general population: $269 vs. $507 (Prison Policy Institute).This is particularly because the job positions available to reentrants are typically entry-level positions. At OutsideConnection, we are looking to change this by listing some of the premier workplaces, like Chiptole, Meta, Bank of America, Sysco, and more. Reentrants struggle with finding decently paying jobs: they also struggle with finding welcoming jobs in general. Reentrants have a 40% unemployment rate after being released for 4 years, while the general U.S. population has a mere 3.7% rate (Bureau of Justice Statistics; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). This staggering statistic shows how criminal records create entry barriers for individuals looking to enter the workforce.
We plan to combat these disparities by providing reentrants with safe and stable jobs that will welcome them into the workforce. When looking for hiring institutions, we’ve targeted larger corporations and businesses because not only are they more likely to hire reentrants, but their operations and policies are standardized across the board, meaning it’s much easier to determine whether select locations are considered fair-chance. Data from our partner, the Second Chance Business Coalition, shows that many large companies are supportive of fair-chance hiring. 82% of managers report that reentrant employees bring as high a value as workers without records. 76% of SCBC members have reviewed hiring policies to be more inclusive of reentrants.
We plan to expand our target market past just the companies in the SCBC. To expand further, we could market to companies that have “banned the box,” a term that refers to non-discrimination or declaration of certain offenses. 36 U.S. states have banned the box so far. We also currently employ initiatives with the SCBC that expand the amount of companies that will hire reentrants.
To date, OutsideConnection has provided job access to over 10,000 reentrants across the United States in 17 states and 34 cities. We currently have over 650 available job opportunities on our site from over 40 leading second-chance employers–and this number is growing everyday.
Through our platform, reentrants can access higher-paying positions that align with their skills and aspirations, allowing them to build meaningful careers and become valuable contributors to their communities. Our approach also benefits employers by providing them with a pool of motivated and skilled employees who are often overlooked in the hiring process. By tapping into this talent pool, companies can improve their diversity and inclusion efforts while also benefiting from reduced turnover rates and increased loyalty among employees.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Although this project has been recognized by some of the most prestigious entrepreneurial programs like Ashoka Changemakers, Prudential Emerging Visionaries, Diamond Challenge, DECA ICDC, and more, the real experience I bring to the table is my work alongside reentrants for almost a decade in my family bakery.
From running a business that actively employs reentrants, I've witnessed and managed the reentry-hiring process with an insider perspective. When we first started OutsideConnection, we initially did so to bolster our fair-chance hiring program because post-pandemic hiring was an immense struggle. During this time, we created and hosted many community events around the city of Pittsburgh as a way to better understand both the issue we're combatting and our solution.
In collaboration with ACAR (Allegheny County Reentry Coalition), we orchestrated a reentry job fair that attracted 140+ reentrants from across Pennsylvania. During the event, I took on the role of an instructor, guiding reentrants through the OutsideConnection job-seeking process. Currently, I serve as a leader of the ACAR Employment Committee, helping to plan future job fairs. We've also worked with RECA (Reentry Coaching Academy), a reentry program throughout PA, to host our own job-seeking workshop. Kevin, Jason, and Michael are all reentrants who now work as coaches at RECA. I've always loved their stories.
Beyond Pennsylvania, our efforts have resonated across the nation. We've assisted over 100 reentry organizations nationwide in developing tailored job-placement strategies, opening doors to employment for more than 10,000 reentrants. Our collaborations with industry leaders like Amazon, McDonald's, Chipotle, and more have provided restaurants with tangible, well-paying job opportunities. Last year, we were adopted into the U.S. Department of Justice's curriculum for reentry, National Reentry Resource Center, allowing us to educate and help reentrants everywhere in the country. Every week, I take time to meet with 2-3 nationwide reentry organizations to initiate hiring processes for their training programs. I love seeing the smiles and excitement on people's faces when they see the resource for the first time. Their faces light up with the idea of new possibilities and breakthroughs in the reentry process.
We've received grant funding from the REFORM Alliance, founded by Meek Mill, JayZ, Pricilla Chan-Zuckerburg, and Robert Kraft, which currently supports ALL of our operations. Our advocacy efforts, such as our petition for PA State Senate Bill 838, have led to tangible legislative changes, including due process for parole violations and enhancing reentry education opportunities. We started the first petition for SB 838, which the REFORM Alliance eventually adopted, and eventually helped pass SB 838 in June of 2023. We only keep adding to our current operations and impact, and I can't wait to see where we go next!
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Generate new economic opportunities and buffer against economic shocks for workers, including good job creation, workforce development, and inclusive and attainable asset ownership.Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
ScaleWhy are you applying to Solve?
MIT Solve provides us with an opportunity to not only secure essential funding for our work but also to join an innovative community of entrepreneurs and problem-solvers that can provide us with connections, mentorships, and collaborations. While funding would be a critical part of OutsideConnection’s growth, we also would highly benefit from mentorship opportunities through the 9 month program with world leaders and innovators. Resources from MIT Solve would also help us address the following:
Expertise: As we continue to innovate and improve our job-listing technology, we could use the mentorship and guidance from the Solve community to enhance our process even further. Because our technology and ideas are novel, there are new territories to be explored with what we can do. With the help of the Solve community, we hope to explore new possibilities and ideas in a totally new framework. We are also interested in increasing our technology's scalability, which I believe the 9-month incubation program would help with.
Market Barriers: Although our operational model and technology are new, there are still challenges we might face when expanding. While most businesses and organizations face challenges simply from competition, we face a different problem: navigating unfamiliar waters in the field of reentry. As we expand our reach and operations even further to different regions, it will be useful to have experts by our sides while figuring out our next steps.
Networking Opportunities: What I’ve learned from past entrepreneurial incubators and competitions is that achieving the end goal is far outweighed by the things you learn and people you meet along the way. I hope to learn from everyone around me; both the MIT Solve team and other competitors. I’m sure that they’ll have much to teach me, and also that I can spread the knowledge that I’ve learned from my own journey. We are eager to connect with other creative innovators and individuals who are working towards similar goals. The possibility of collaboration and shared knowledge will contribute largely to our future impact as an organization.
Impact: Through Solve’s support and resources, OutsideConnection will have the opportunity to scale, leading to tangible improvements in our impact. The emphasis on human-centered design will ensure that our organization stays relevant and conclusive as we benefit unserved populations. Solve’s focus on impact measurement will also ensure accountability and a motivation to maintain a widespread effect.
Aside from project help, I also look forward to the events in both May and September and being able to connect with entrepreneurs from New York and Boston. In conclusion, our goal for joining MIT Solve isn’t just centered around funding; it’s about learning, failing, rebuilding, and eventually changing the world (even more than we already have).
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Sebastian Tan
What makes your solution innovative?
Current reentry practices often require manual job searching with reentry hiring specialists, which is inefficient, time-consuming, and costly. Job specialists locate job opportunities simply through word of mouth or personal connections. In the current model, reentrants also often have a limited selection of available job positions because of the exclusive hiring practices of some companies. Lastly, reentrants with underfunded or absent local reentry institutions face hardship when seeking employment opportunities. Without the help of an employment institution, reentrants are left to search for employment independently, which can be difficult or even impossible.
We tackle all three of these problems head-on, setting us far apart from the current model. There are several features that set us apart from alternatives:
Revolutionary Technology: our system rivals platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn, but our technology costs are in the thousands of dollars instead of in the millions. Our incredible technology allows for criteria-based searching and sorting of positions analogous to the leading sites in the general market. We utilize external cloud-based hosting and data pruning that differentiates us from leaders in the broader hiring market, such as LinkedIn and Indeed.
Universal Access: using our data-science scraping tool through Apify, we have the ability to find and filter all current job listings across the entire internet in the United States. From here, we narrow down the positions that will hire reentrants through our list from the Second Chance Business Coalition. The jobs that are filtered out are listed on our site. There are no other job hiring applications that use this model to source jobs; they instead use direct listings. By searching the entire web through scraping, we have the greatest access to open positions.
Market Position: As of now, we are the only non-profit reentry job platform in the market. While LinkedIn and Indeed can work for the reentry process, they don’t target reentrants specifically and also don’t choose fair-chance positions. We are uniquely positioned in the market with our low costs, highest possible access to job opportunities, advanced search tools, and incredibly low operational costs. With these aspects considered, OutsideConnection has no direct competitors. However, with great power comes great responsibility; we want to ensure that our market position still allows us to impact and help as many reentrants as possible. Therefore, our market competition, while still important, will always be lower than humanitarian incentives on our list of priorities.
Joint Incentives: Corporate businesses that work with our fair-chance hiring initiative have the possibility to hire a larger workforce and source a flowing supply of employees. Aside from this, they can also utilize the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and Federal Bonding Program to earn up to $2,400 per employee that they hire in a given year, providing economic incentives to utilize fair-chance practices. By hiring reentrants, businesses can also gain public appeal and boost their brand image while also strengthening their DEI programs by hiring groups of marginalized individuals.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
Our theory of change is centered around our focus on providing increased job access to previously incarcerated individuals. By increasing the number of opportunities available to our target demographic, we foresee a future of more successful reentrants and lowered rates of recidivism. Here’s a more detailed summary of why our approach is successful:
Higher Quality Positions: By specifically targeting larger second-chance employers, we offer reentrants the ability to climb the corporate ladder and access jobs that are currently unavailable to them. The current process centers reentry around entry-level positions that end up crippling reentrants long-term success. However, by providing increased accessibility to high-level positions and companies, OutsideConnection drastically improves the current model.
Increased Success Rates: Because our platform caters specifically to reentrants, we increase the possibility of reentrants getting successfully hired. We only list second-chance positions, removing the possibility that a reentrant is not compatible or welcome in a workplace environment. This factor of our process is essential in ensuring that reentrants are hired successfully and retain their job for a sustained period. We seek to place reetrants in jobs that will help them as they become successful and allow them the opportunity to thrive. Because of this, we ensure that reentrants are placed in positions where they are welcomed and where they can succeed to their fullest potential.
Less Recidivism: Over the long-term, OutsideConnection reduces recidivism drastically, lowering long-term crime rates and ensuring a more equitable society. In fact, formerly incarcerated persons who maintained employment for 1 year or more, have a 16% recidivism rate, compared to their unemployed counterparts who had a rate of 52% (Safer Foundation Three-Year Recidivism Study, 2008).
Longer-Term Outcomes: By facilitating successful reentry into society, OutsideConnection positively impacts communities by reducing recidivism rates, leading to safer neighborhoods and stronger social cohesion. Additionally, our efforts aim to influence policy changes that support second-chance employment and reentry programs, potentially leading to broader systemic changes that benefit reentrants nationwide. We also offer ongoing support to reentrants even after they secure employment, ensuring they have the resources and guidance needed for long-term success and stability.
Mutually Beneficial Framework: OutsideConnection is ensured to grow successfully because of the mutually beneficial relationship that exists between our organization and our stakeholders. Employers benefit from gaining skilled and dedicated employees, reducing turnover rates, and contributing to their social responsibility goals. Corporations can also take advantage of tax credits like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which offers $2,400 per reentrant employee hired.
Economic Impact: Reentry hiring has huge economic impacts on both ends: growing the workforce and keeping individuals out of prison. Data shows that employing just 100 previously incarcerated individuals will create millions of dollars in economic benefit simply by keeping them out of the criminal justice system (Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, 2011). This factor, corroborated with the economic benefits that increased employment will bring to society, exemplifies how reentry hiring will also benefit the U.S. economy.
What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?
Looking forward, I imagine transformative expansion for our project. There are currently over 19 million Americans with criminal records living in the United States. While we have made great progress in reaching over 10,000 reetrants, our reach still pales in comparison to those still left without help. In the 9-month fellowship program through MIT Solve, and with the funding we receive, we plan to:
- Expand operations to the remaining 33 U.S. states by partnering with 20+ more reentry organizations that have a presence in those areas.
- Hire 2+ paid administrators to run operations and expansion: a data scientist to continue back-end job listing and an outreach manager to direct partnership growth.
- Expand our job offerings up to 10,000 listings to meet reentrant demands for new locations and provide restaurants with a diverse collection of job offerings to choose from
- Become adopted by more state Department of Corrections, ensuring that we become an integral part of governmental resource programs.
We use the Second Chance Business Coalition, a list of the 48 best companies that hire reentrants, to source the majority of our hiring companies. However, beyond that, thousands of other companies are also fair-chance compliant. We plan to expand our target market beyond the companies in the SCBC. To expand further, we could market OutsideConnection to companies that have “banned the box,” a term that refers to non-discrimination or declaration of certain offenses. 36 U.S. states have banned the box so far. We also currently employ initiatives with the SCBC that expand the number of companies that will hire reentrants. We hope that we can expand reentry hiring to every company in the country and, in doing so, create more jobs for reentrants.
In measuring our impact and success, we plan to track multiple key metrics or indicators:
Reentrant Retention Rates: We plan to work with reentry organizations to measure how long a reentrant stays employed at a job, ensuring that our placement process is effective and beneficial.
Partnership Count: We will track and consistently grow our partnership count to maintain rapid expansion and growth for our organizational model.
Listed Job Positions: We will steadily increase the number of job positions that we offer, ensuring that our listing count keeps up with our reach.
Current Reach: We plan to track our reach by keeping close contact with our reentry organization partners, who can provide us with useful information on our effectiveness, performance, and growth.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Technology is the basis of our solution. It powers everything: from our ability to find prospective second-chance companies to our job locating process, spreadsheet aggregation, listing jobs, and lastly, distribution to reentrants. Here's a summary of our distribution model, where every aspect utilizes technology:
Company Search: We initiate our organizational process by searching for companies that are fair-chance. We do this by utilizing Google, online resources like the SCBC, company websites, and also by reaching out to companies via email. This step helps us identify which companies are open to second-chance hiring, and we use technology as a mode of connection between our organization and other companies.
Position Extraction: After locating prospective fair-chance companies, we begin a process that aggregates all of each company's job listings from across the internet. We utilize AI-embedded, algorithmic web-scraping that pulls data from the web, filters it according to our fair-chance criteria, and then sorts it into large spreadsheet files that we can download. We use an integration called Apify to complete this algorithmic process and give the engine certain search criteria that match the company we are trying to target and the element of fair-chance compliance.
Backend Uploads: We take the aggregated job data and upload it to the CMS backend of our Webflow platform. Each line of job data from the sheet gets transformed into a position that is then stored and sorted in our database. Currently we store our data on Webflow's server, but after we surpass 10,000 listings we will shift to AirTable's cloud-hosting service to accommodate for incredibly large amounts of data. Technology facilitates this step of the process by storing and sorting our information for further use.
Listings: Our website transforms mere data and information into job listings that users can interact with. We utilize data searching and sorting through Finsweet, which allows users to prune through listings that they like and are in close proximity to them. Our search tool is analogous in capability to leading sites like Indeed and LinkedIn but adds the filtering of fair-chance employment opportunities to cater to our target demographic.
User Distribution: Technology also plays a large role in the distribution of our service to reetrants. We work with reentry organizations who utilize and distribute our service to connect reentrants to jobs. As reentry workers or the reentrants themselves use the platform, they are channeled directly to the employment company's site to apply directly. Our web technology plays a key role in connecting with our users.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
outsideconnection.org
In which countries do you currently operate?
How many people work on your solution team?
Currently, we have 2 full time staff: a CEO and VP that work on organizational and operational development. We also have 2 paid contractors that help with data uploads and adding new job positions. We currently have a waitlist and will begin a recruitment round in June to onboard outreach directors. Because of our business model we run without a large amount of employees, and instead rely on our reentry organization partners for distribution.
How long have you been working on your solution?
OutsideConnection was started in November, 2022. We’ve been working for about 1 year and 4 months.
Tell us about how you ensure that your team is diverse, minimizes barriers to opportunity for staff, and provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all team members.
At OutsideConnection, we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all team members. Our network is composed of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those with lived experiences related to incarceration, as well as individuals from various racial, ethnic, and gender identities. We believe that diversity in leadership not only brings different perspectives to the table but also serves as a role model for our organization's commitment to inclusivity.
To ensure that our team minimizes barriers to opportunity, we have implemented several strategies. First, we offer flexible work arrangements to accommodate the diverse needs of our team members. This includes remote work options, flexible hours, and access to resources that support work-life balance. Additionally, we provide ongoing training and development opportunities to enhance the skills and competencies of our team members, regardless of their background or experience level.
We are currently funded by the REFORM Alliance, founded by Jay Z, Meek Mill, Pricilla Chan-Zuckerburg, and Robert Kraft, and have been adopted by the U.S. Department of Justice. We are used by the Center for Employment Opportunities, which alone helps 8,000 reentrants find employment annually.
With ACAR (Allegheny County Reentry Coalition), we hosted a reentry job fair that attracted 140+ reentrants from across Pennsylvania. I was able to teach reentrants how to navigate the site. I currently serve as a leader of the ACAR Employment Committee, helping to plan future job fairs. We have also helped more than 100 reentry organizations across the country develop their own job-placement plans. I’ve also had the chance to work with RECA, a reentry program throughout PA, founded by some colleagues I met at a conference. Kevin, Jason, and Michael are all reentrants who now work as teachers at RECA, and their stories are inspirational. RECA is a training program for reentrants to become educated and learn trade skills, and they use our program to help reentrants across PA. I’ve always loved their story.
We’ve set up OutsideConnection for success by putting together a network across the country. From calling, emailing, and diligently researching hiring practices, we’ve grown to over 17 states and 31 cities. We’ve made an effort to specifically target cities that are affected by incarceration, like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
We work closely with diverse groups of people, most of whom are reetrants. They come from all walks of life, races, genders, and backgrounds. From working together, we build a tomorrow where each individual and demographic’s voice can be heard.
What is your business model?
Our distribution model is multifaceted: we distribute our service through our outreach channel to reentrants and reentry organizations, and we also establish partnerships with corporations that allow reentrants to become employed.
Forge Partnerships with Corporate Institutions: The first step of our business process is to gain a supply of job opportunities. This is done for free through fair-chance companies that are looking to hire more workers. We simply partner with them and aggregate their open positions on our website. This part of the process may be a good point of revenue for us to reap profits, although it is currently done without a usage fee. OutsideConnection partners with major corporations that are committed and willing to hire reentrants. This list includes some of the premier companies, including Walmart, Home Depot, McDonalds, Chipotle, Mastercard, PayPal, Prudential Financial, and many others.
List Job Opportunities: By listing job opportunities, we offer reentrants an opportunity to be hired while simultaneously increasing the workforce of the corporate hiring intuition. We simply list the job opportunities on our site so that reentrants have the availability to view all the second-chance options that they have available.
Reentrants Access the Site and Get Hired: Users typically utilize the site individually or through a reentry institution like a prison or reentry organization.
Reentry Organizations: Reentry organizations are third-party non-profit organizations that help individuals transition from prison to the workforce. Hundreds of reentry organizations exist across the United States, and OutsideConnection has partnered with some of the largest in the country. OC provides reentry organizations with a tool for easy and efficient hiring. While the process can be done manually, an automated system that can be used independently by the reentrant is extremely beneficial to the reentry system.
Individual Reentrants: When using OutsideConnection individually, reentrants have the freedom to choose from a variety of jobs in their local area that would fit their needs and would be a welcoming environment. Reentrants are the main beneficiaries of our service, but they don’t contribute to revenue streams. Individual reentrants have access to OutsideConnection no matter their institutional affiliation. Our website can be reached from any device, whether it be at a library, halfway house, prison program, reentry institution, personal phone, etc.
Funding: All of our current funding is from 3rd-party sources like The REFORM Alliance, Prudential Financial, and Ashoka. In the future, we hope to become operational without non-stakeholder funding, which won’t be difficult because of our low costs.
OutisdeConnections: Much of our marketing and distribution model relies simply on networking. From connecting with both hiring institutions and reentry institutions, we use a contractual vertical marketing system (VMS) that allows our client base to operate independently while still abiding by our contractual agreements. Our channel works in a multifaceted approach, where we act as an “OutsideConnection” between hiring companies and reentrants. Our vertical approach results in a smooth distribution channel.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?
OutsideConnection is currently operating as a non-profit entity. Our incredibly low-cost model has led to a massive success even without mass amounts of revenue or funding. Current funding has been channeled through Prudential Financial, The REFORM Alliance, and Ashoka Changemakers.
However, we’ve designed a business model that would be incredibly effective in retaining long-term sustainability. With the help from innovation and business leaders at MIT Solve, we could receive guidance and input to put this plan into practice.
In a consumer revenue-generating scenario, our physical customers would be companies and businesses that hire previously incarcerated individuals. These corporations enjoy large tax benefits as a part of government subsidy programs like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit and Federal Bonding. Many different corporations that benefit from OutsideConnection have philanthropic and partnership opportunities that can be utilized for supplemental income. Two examples of opportunities are Bank of America and Prudential Financial, which both offer funding for employment initiatives. By using OutsideConnection, these companies can increase their workforce, take advantage of tax benefits, and improve society. We plan to specifically target larger corporations for 3 main reasons:
They are better positioned to hire a larger amount of employees
They have higher revenues, so we can charge a higher service fee
They stand to make substantial gains from mass hiring through government subsidies
In addition, the Federal Government also contributes over $5 Billion in funding for criminal justice initiatives and programs each year (Center for American Progress, 2020). While we plan to target private companies, we could also request the government to direct WOTC and Federal Bonding capital toward our initiative as well. After all, our platform creates societal benefits that are substantially beneficial for the U.S. government, saving them millions each year through reduced recidivism.
Both government contracts and corporate contracts would be effective revenue models. By charging corporate institutions a usage fee, we would actually encourage them to hire more reetrants because by hiring more reetrants they would increase their WOTC tax credit savings and begin to earn money. After hiring a certain number of reetrants, their WOTC benefits would outweigh their usage fee to us, and they would begin earning profit. Economically, the quantity supplied of labor would grow as well for the corporate business. If we were to go the government route, we have the ability to work together with the government as a quasi-governmental entity. This would give us close access to prison institutions and increase our reach. We are already a part of the USDOJ National Reentry Resource Center, so we could request funding from there.
It’s still unclear which route we should take to achieve long-term stability, but the two options we have are very optimistic. Hopefully, with the advisory of MIT Solve, we will be able to gain a better direction in our long-term revenue plan.
Solution Team
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Sebastian Tan Founder & CEO, OutsideConnection
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Our Organization
OutsideConnection