Participatory Budgeting

What it is

A democratic process where community members directly decide how to spend a public budget. Residents propose projects. Volunteers and staff develop the strongest proposals into concrete projects with budgets. The community votes on which projects to fund. Selected projects are implemented and reported back.

The practice was developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 and has spread to over 11,500 processes globally. In the U.S., participatory budgeting has been used by city councils, mayors, public housing authorities, schools, and youth-led initiatives.

Why it works

The conventional way public budgets get spent: elected officials and bureaucrats make decisions, residents react. The result is that most residents have no direct relationship to public spending and most public spending bears little resemblance to what residents would have prioritized.

Participatory budgeting changes that. Residents identify their own priorities. The process surfaces what neighborhoods actually need (often: traffic calming, lighting, parks, programs for elders, programs for youth, very rarely the things bureaucracies tend to prioritize). Civic engagement grows because the choices are real.

What you need

• Time: 6 to 12 months for a full annual cycle.
• People: Community facilitators, project managers, agency or government staff, volunteer voter guides, diverse residents across the community.
• Space: Multiple accessible venues for brainstorming and voting. Libraries, schools, community centers. Online options as well.
• Materials: Proposal templates, budget worksheets, voting ballots, community education materials. Multilingual everything.
• Skills: Facilitation, budget literacy, project management, accessibility coordination.
• Energy level: High during the active months. Requires sustained outreach.

How to host it

This is a recipe that typically requires institutional partnership (city, county, school, or housing authority) because the budget being spent is public money. The community-organizing version is bringing this to your jurisdiction. The implementation version requires partnership.

If you're advocating for participatory budgeting

1. Find allies. Often other community organizations have already been exploring this. Participatory Budgeting Project maintains a national network.
2. Build a case. Document successful pilots elsewhere. New York City has run PB through city council districts; Chicago, Cambridge, Boston, Seattle, and many others have produced strong evidence.
3. Pitch a pilot. A defined budget ($500K to $5M), a defined area, a defined timeline. Most cities will start with one council district or one program.
4. Demand community design. The strongest PB processes are designed with substantial community input on the rules, the eligibility, and the voting mechanism. Watch for "PB-lite" versions where the city retains too much control.

If you're running participatory budgeting

The cycle:

1. Idea collection (4 to 8 weeks). Residents submit project ideas through forms, neighborhood meetings, schools, online platforms, intercept events. Aim for many ideas; quality emerges from quantity.
2. Proposal development (6 to 12 weeks). Volunteer "budget delegates" work with agency staff to translate the most popular ideas into concrete projects with realistic budgets and implementation plans. This phase is where most of the labor happens.
3. Community voting (1 to 4 weeks). Residents vote on the proposals. Voting age is often lowered (16, sometimes 14). Multiple voting locations and online options. Multilingual materials. Aim for genuine accessibility, not just compliance.
4. Implementation and reporting (the rest of the year). The winning projects are implemented by the city or its partners. Updates back to the community at quarterly intervals.

Variations

Youth PB. Significant portion or all of a budget allocated by young people. Boston's Youth Lead the Change is a leading example.

School PB. Students decide how to spend a school budget. Some districts now do this in every school.

Public housing PB. Residents of housing authorities decide on improvements to common spaces, programming, and capital projects.

Climate PB. A budget specifically directed at climate or sustainability projects. Used in several European cities and emerging in U.S. contexts.

Universal participation models. Some jurisdictions allow undocumented residents to vote in PB. The process is about civic life, not citizenship status.

Stories from neighborhoods

Over 11,500 participatory budgeting processes have been implemented globally since the model's start in Porto Alegre in 1989. In the U.S.:

• Boston's Youth Lead the Change invested $1M in projects identified by young people.
• Cambridge, MA has allocated $1M+ annually via PB since 2014.
• King County, Washington distributed $11.75M across 42 community-chosen projects in 2024.
• New York City has run PB through city council districts since 2011.

Outcomes consistently include: increased civic participation (often 5x to 10x voting on PB compared to local elections), better-targeted spending, and stronger community-government relationships.

Where to learn more

• The national hub: Participatory Budgeting Project
• Global network: International Observatory on Participatory Democracy
• Foundational text: Josh Lerner, *Making Democracy Fun*
• Adjacent recipes: [Microgrant Gathering](./microgrant-gathering.md), [Neighborhood Association](./neighborhood-associations.md), [Appreciative Inquiry](../04-gathering-design/appreciative-inquiry.md)

Details

• steps: **Find allies.** Often other community organizations have already been exploring this. [Participatory Budgeting Project](https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/) maintains a national network., **Build a case.** Document successful pilots elsewhere. New York City has run PB through city council districts; Chicago, Cambridge, Boston, Seattle, and many others have produced strong evidence., **Pitch a pilot.** A defined budget ($500K to $5M), a defined area, a defined timeline. Most cities will start with one council district or one program., **Demand community design.** The strongest PB processes are designed with substantial community input on the rules, the eligibility, and the voting mechanism. Watch for "PB-lite" versions where the city retains too much control. ### If you're running participatory budgeting The cycle:, **Idea collection (4 to 8 weeks).** Residents submit project ideas through forms, neighborhood meetings, schools, online platforms, intercept events. Aim for many ideas; quality emerges from quantity., **Proposal development (6 to 12 weeks).** Volunteer "budget delegates" work with agency staff to translate the most popular ideas into concrete projects with realistic budgets and implementation plans. This phase is where most of the labor happens., **Community voting (1 to 4 weeks).** Residents vote on the proposals. Voting age is often lowered (16, sometimes 14). Multiple voting locations and online options. Multilingual materials. Aim for genuine accessibility, not just compliance., **Implementation and reporting (the rest of the year).** The winning projects are implemented by the city or its partners. Updates back to the community at quarterly intervals.
• file path: recipes/11-civic-rhythms/participatory-budgeting.md
• variations: **Youth PB.** Significant portion or all of a budget allocated by young people. Boston's Youth Lead the Change is a leading example. **School PB.** Students decide how to spend a school budget. Some districts now do this in every school. **Public housing PB.** Residents of housing authorities decide on improvements to common spaces, programming, and capital projects. **Climate PB.** A budget specifically directed at climate or sustainability projects. Used in several European cities and emerging in U.S. contexts. **Universal participation models.** Some jurisdictions allow undocumented residents to vote in PB. The process is about civic life, not citizenship status.
• ingredients: {"time":"6 to 12 months for a full annual cycle.","space":"Multiple accessible venues for brainstorming and voting. Libraries, schools, community centers. Online options as well.","people":"Community facilitators, project managers, agency or government staff, volunteer voter guides, diverse residents across the community.","skills":"Facilitation, budget literacy, project management, accessibility coordination.","materials":"Proposal templates, budget worksheets, voting ballots, community education materials. Multilingual everything.","energy_level":"High during the active months. Requires sustained outreach."}
• where to learn more: - The national hub: [Participatory Budgeting Project](https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/) - Global network: [International Observatory on Participatory Democracy](https://www.oidp.net/) - Foundational text: Josh Lerner, *Making Democracy Fun* - Adjacent recipes: [Microgrant Gathering](./microgrant-gathering.md), [Neighborhood Association](./neighborhood-associations.md), [Appreciative Inquiry](../04-gathering-design/appreciative-inquiry.md)
• stories from neighborhoods: Over 11,500 participatory budgeting processes have been implemented globally since the model's start in **Porto Alegre** in 1989. In the U.S.: - **Boston's Youth Lead the Change** invested $1M in projects identified by young people. - **Cambridge, MA** has allocated $1M+ annually via PB since 2014. - **King County, Washington** distributed $11.75M across 42 community-chosen projects in 2024. - **New York City** has run PB through city council districts since 2011. Outcomes consistently include: increased civic participation (often 5x to 10x voting on PB compared to local elections), better-targeted spending, and stronger community-government relationships.