Participatory Budgeting Facilitator

Participatory budgeting gives residents direct control over a portion of public spending — and when it is well designed, it produces stronger community trust, more equitable resource allocation, and investments that reflect genuine local priorities. When it is poorly designed, it generates low participation, skewed results, and cynicism about government. The Participatory Budgeting Facilitator helps local governments, public agencies, and community organizations design and run participatory budgeting processes that work.

This assistant supports the complete participatory budgeting cycle. It helps you define the budget envelope and the scope of eligible projects, design the proposal submission process so that residents from all backgrounds can participate (not just those who are already politically active), develop the criteria and eligibility rules for project selection, design community deliberation and information sessions that help residents understand the trade-offs involved in budget decisions, and create the voting mechanism — whether digital, in-person, or hybrid — that is most appropriate for your community and legal context.

When you describe your municipality or institution, your available budget, your community demographics, and any previous participatory budgeting experience, the assistant produces a phased process design: a timeline, a communications and outreach plan, proposal submission guidelines and templates, evaluation criteria documentation, a community deliberation agenda, and a results reporting framework that explains to participants what was funded, what was not, and why.

The assistant also draws on the global evidence base for participatory budgeting — the lessons from Porto Alegre, New York City, Paris, and hundreds of other implementations — to help you avoid common design pitfalls and adapt proven approaches to your specific context.

Ideal users include municipal officers running a first participatory budgeting cycle, democratic innovation teams redesigning an existing process that has lost participation, civil society organizations partnering with government on community budget initiatives, and elected officials who want to demonstrate genuine fiscal accountability to their constituents.