We are celebrating 10 years of transforming democracy and are proud to share our incredible victories from 2018 and our first decade of work. We can’t wait for you to be part of our vision for the future of the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP). With your support, we can create a more just and equitable democracy together.

In 2018, we invested in making PB better and bigger. We developed new resources, supported innovative programs, and expanded what real democracy can be. Read more about these achievements and more from our first 10 years in our 2018 Annual Report:

Launching and scaling PB

Since 2009, we have launched dozens of PB processes and grown existing processes to democratize bigger budgets and have greater impacts on communities.

We’re increasing the amount of money and decisions that communities can control through  PB. We need even more officials, organizations, and funders to create opportunities for real participation. We’re building large-scale equitable PB processes to raise the bar for civic engagement and open up bigger decisions to constituents.

Making PB better

As we’ve grown PB, we’ve also invested in research and development to make PB more accessible, effective, and equitable. Leaders around the world use the tools and resources we’ve created to make participation work better.

To enable equitable and empowering civic engagement to spread more widely, we’re developing tools to make PB easier and better. As we research and test ways to improve PB’s design, we’re sharing new resources and learning to support community leaders.

Investing in young leaders

Through PB in schools, we are creating new opportunities for civic education and action where participants learn democracy by doing it. We are empowering young people to change how government works, starting in their schools and their communities.

We’re helping school leaders learn about—and launch—PB for school budgets. Investing in young leaders means investing in the long term health of a more equitable democracy.

Tackling big public problems with community

We are providing new ways for community leaders to address broader societal challenges together with residents. We have partnered with the California Endowment and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to use PB as a tool for building healthy communities. And, we have served as a core partner for a national “participatory justice” initiative to enable people most impacted by the justice system to shape criminal justice reforms.

Growing a powerful network

In the last 10 years, we’ve brought together leaders from different sectors to learn with us and from each other, to build a more equitable democracy together. What started as a website of resources at participatorybudgeting.org has grown and spread across movements and time zones. We’re proud of the network of individuals and institutions we’ve brought together as we’ve launched and led PB processes across the U.S. and Canada, and convened practitioners, elected officials, researchers, and youth at the five international conferences we’ve hosted.

Looking Forward

As we start our second decade, we are shifting our focus to four strategic directions. We look forward to your continued support in this next stage of our journey to transform our democracy!

Will you join us as we celebrate our first 10 years of transforming democracy, and plan for the coming decades together?

We’re hosting a 10th Anniversary Benefit at Prime Produce in New York City on Thursday, May 23, 2019. If you’re in NYC, buy your ticket to join us!

We’re also welcoming celebrations from a distance – support the next 10 years of community-led democracy by becoming a PB Amplifier.