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The Outcomes Accelerator was conceived by address the key barriers impeding the market and catalyze the market’s capacity to translate learning from pilots into replication and scaling of impact.
Despite this growing interest outcomes-based financing approaches, the ecosystem remains in an early-learning phase.
Most transactions are a first-of-a-kind demonstration projects, often in a specific theme or geography, with long lead times. Outcomes payers, service providers and investors confront steep learning curves as parties gain experience. Donor agencies and domestic governments in developing countries remain constrained by low capacity, limited access to the skills and expertise and a range of institutional barriers and cultural disincentives that limit that testing and use of outcomes-based approaches.
The Fourth Cohort is now open and accepting applications.
See below for details!
For the Fourth Cohort, the Outcomes Accelerator invites proposals for outcomes-based financing projects that incentivize forest protection and restoration, sustainable land use, biodiversity conservation, and other nature-positive investments.
The Outcomes Accelerator offers flexible funding, targeted expertise, and networking to support OBF initiatives with testing, launching, and scaling. To facilitate this, we periodically issue open calls for proposals to identify and support high-potential initiatives that are designing or preparing to launch outcomes-based financing (OBF) mechanisms. Through these calls, the Accelerator offers pipeline acceleration support—including funding, technical assistance, and access to a global network of experts—to help promising projects move toward implementation. See information on the winners of the first three Cohorts of the Outcomes Accelerator here.
The Outcomes Accelerator can offer flexible funding, targeted expertise, and networking to support project proponents in bringing their early- and late-stage projects to launch.
Seed Funding
To support the design and launch of strategic projects.
Expertise and Mentoring
Technical assistance to help get projects off the ground.
Match-making and Funding Coordination
Connecting projects to outcome funders and other strategic partners.
Forests underpin global climate stability, food and economic security, and biodiversity preservation. Achieving global sustainability goals—including the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the SDGs—requires urgent action to halt deforestation, restore degraded landscapes, and transition to sustainable land use practices. Forests provide invaluable yet often underappreciated social, environmental, and economic benefits.
There is growing evidence that OBF can align incentives, unlock private capital, and drive more effective forest protection and restoration. By tying funding to verified results, OBF can improve accountability, reward long-term stewardship, and support innovation across actors. This approach holds particular promise for the forest sector, where traditional funding has struggled to keep pace with the scale and complexity of the challenge—and where coordinated, performance-based solutions are urgently needed.
The Outcomes Accelerator seeks proposals for innovative OBF projects to incentivize forest protection and restoration, sustainable land use, biodiversity conservation, and other nature-positive investments. We particularly encourage proposals addressing tropical forest biomes in priority geographies, notably the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, while also welcoming high-impact projects from other critical forest ecosystems, including dry forests, savannahs and mangroves linked to tropical forests.
Key parameters for the scope and priorities for the Fourth Cohort of Outcomes-based Finance Projects include:
Projects or services must be delivered in or be provided for the benefit of countries and territories eligible to receive official development assistance according to the OECD-DAC List of ODA Recipients.
Priority will be given to tropical biomes in the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, though high-impact proposals from other critical forest ecosystems are welcome and eligible to apply, including dry forests, savannahs and mangroves linked to tropical forests.
The Outcomes Accelerator welcomes innovative proposals that apply OBF to achieve clear and measurable conservation, social, and economic outcomes.
The most successful proposals will articulate actionable OBF strategies through innovative financing mechanisms to:
Proposals may explore (but are not limited to) interventions within the following thematic areas:
Forest Conservation and Restoration
Initiatives that leverage OBF to restore degraded forests, prevent deforestation, enhance ecological connectivity and improve forest resilience, wildfire management and protection, and create value from forest regrowth and restoration. We also encourage the submission of initiatives related to jurisdictional carbon credits, carbon projects (both reforestation and REDD+) that include additional outcomes related to biodiversity and social benefits for local communities, and projects that integrate REDD+ with sustainable commodity production.
Sustainable Land Use, Regenerative Agriculture and Agroforestry
Projects that use OBF mechanisms to incentivize sustainable and regenerative agricultural, agroforestry, or integrated land-use practices, that improve ecological health, connectivity, and economic sustainability and incorporate forest protection and restoration into viable sustainable production models.
Sustainable Supply Chains
Innovative OBF-enabled solutions ensuring deforestation-free supply chains, traceability, and measurable reductions in environmental impacts.
Nature positive recreation and tourism
Projects using OBF to incentivize responsible eco-tourism enterprises or models for the development and management of outdoor recreation infrastructure linked to conservation-based KPIs.
Biodiversity Conservation
Approaches employing biodiversity-linked OBF instruments, that support habitat restoration and protection, species protection, and ecological corridor initiatives that deliver measurable improvements in ecosystem health and biodiversity gain.
Coastal forest ecosystems and Forest water nexus
OBF-funded interventions in coastal forest ecosystems (e.g., mangroves) within tropical biomes or integrated forest-watershed management that deliver clear, measurable outcomes related to carbon sequestration, water security, and resilience.
Note: Projects exclusively reliant on carbon credits as their primary outcome payment mechanism must demonstrate clear additionality beyond traditional carbon finance.
Proposals will not be considered if they:
The Outcomes Accelerator is instrument-agnostic as long as projects support the design, implementation or capacity building for an Outcomes-Based Finance approach. All projects should involve the participation of non-state actors. Private investment is not required but may be considered a bonus when it adds knowledge and rigor, and/or financial viability to the project.
Project should adhere to OECD guidance and definitions of outcomes-based finance. Instruments may include, but are not limited to, impact bonds, outcomes bonds, impact-linked loans and bonds, outcome funds, biodiversity units, nature credits and environmental market mechanisms, carbon-linked payments, innovative PES and compensation schemes, pull finance mechanisms, outcomes contracts, corporate insetting, among other tools, strategies, and approaches.
The Outcomes Accelerator seeks initiatives that can demonstrate existing market traction, such as engagement with key partners and availability of outcome funding. Competitive proposals will be able to provide evidence of support, commitment, and leadership from outcome funders and domestic government partners (e.g. letters of support, MOUs, official announcements, etc) and other key partners.
All proposals will be objectively assessed using the evaluation criteria in the table below to support decision making and shortlist the most promising applications and EOIs. The assessment scores for proposals will remain confidential within the Outcomes Accelerator. For transparency and learning purposes, applicants may ask for qualitative feedback on their proposals that are invited to submit full proposals. The Outcomes Accelerator’s Governing Committee will review shortlisted proposals and endorse final selections.
Criteria
Description
Max Points (Total=100)
Potential Impact and Accelerator Additionality
Applicants must submit proposals aligned with the scope of the Fourth Call for Proposals to use outcomes-based financing (OBF) mechanisms to align incentives, unlock private capital, and drive more effective forest protection and restoration. See above for more details on the scope of this CfP.
Competitive proposals will:
Stakeholder Support and Likelihood to Launch
Proposals must demonstrate their readiness to launch, backed by strong support from relevant stakeholders. For the fourth Cohort, the Outcomes Accelerator will prioritize projects that:
Capacity to Deliver and Staffing
The Outcomes Accelerator will prioritize proposals with teams, organizations, and consortia that can demonstrate their capacity to deliver (e.g., strength and quality of partnerships, level of expertise, track record of delivery, evidence supporting interventions, etc.). Consortia partnerships and subcontractors should be well defined.
The Outcomes Accelerator will prioritize proposals that are innovative, data-driven, and offer a potential pathway to scale and sustainable funding, including mobilization of partner government and/or private sector funding. Proposals should also explain how the program will be financially viable in the long term and demonstrate its ability to crowd in private finance for forest ecosystems. This can include outcomes-based projects that are looking to expand into a follow-on or scale up phase.
20
100
In addition to the technical criteria, proposed budgets will be assessed separately at the Full Proposal stage with consideration for realism and price reasonableness. Indicative budget amounts for each product category are provided in the Application Guidance below.
All applications will be required to meet the due diligence and eligibility requirements of the UBS Optimus Foundation and the donors to the Outcomes Accelerator if selected.
The Outcomes Accelerator invites applications from individual organizations or consortia, including, but not limited to:
Outcomes Accelerator takes a portfolio approach, aiming to balance late-stage and early-stage concepts, a range of instrument types, and innovation level. The table below provides indicative guidance on potential uses for Pipeline Acceleration funding. It is intended for guidance only.
Product
Description
Indicative Amount
Country-focused, looks at one or more topics. This should be done in partnership with an interested outcome funder.
Early-Stage Design
Late-Stage Design
Project Scale Up
Up to US$200K
The application process is a two-step process: (1) Expression of Interest (EOI), and (2) Full Proposal for shortlisted applicants by invite only. The EOI will include an initial screening for eligibility, followed by general information about the organization(s), project details and concept, and general funding requirements.
Applications that are successful at the EOI stage will be invited to submit a full proposal, which will require greater detail about the project, including buy-in from relevant stakeholders, project risks, activities, staffing and a full budget breakdown.
Funding Application Process
Applicants can create an account to submit EOIs on the online portal starting September 17, 2025.
The EOI submission deadline for Outcomes Accelerator support is October 31, 2025.
All questions should be sent to OutcomesAccelerator@levoca.org.
