Building resilient communities and environments requires everyone to work together. We need habitat for species to support functioning ecosystems, clean drinking water and swimmable rivers, and smart infrastructure to help economies thrive. To do so, we need better, more effective solutions.

Pay for performance contracts link payment to the delivery of measurable environmental outcomes, inspiring private-sector innovation to find and implement solutions that work.

Combining the local knowledge of landowners, engineers, and ecologists with capital from private investors, pay for performance creates incentives for cost-effective and scalable solutions that improve the environment.

About this site

The Pay for Performance Toolkit was developed to help conservation, water quality, and community sustainability programs achieve better outcomes. The Toolkit provides a central hub of resources for organizations funding environmental improvement projects, mitigation buyers, environmental program managers, private landowners, and other environmental professionals. Explore the Toolkit to understand the variety and benefits of different performance strategies, how to develop contracts, and lessons learned from existing programs using pay for performance.