The Participatory Budgeting Project is fortunate to have the support of dedicated elected officials like Vallejo Councilmember Marti Brown. Check out her message below to find out how you can support us, too!
Dear Friend,
We have a crisis in this country – a lack of public confidence in government’s ability to improve our quality of life. But participatory budgeting (PB) is changing that, and this Tuesday, you can too.
When I first learned about PB in 2008, before being elected as a City Councilmember in Vallejo (California), I was looking for a way to rebuild the City of Vallejo from the inside out. A way to restore our trust in each other and in government’s capacity to get things done. A way to turn Vallejo from a city of bankruptcy to a city of hope.
PB did that.
By putting real money on the table and giving Vallejo citizens the power to decide how to spend it, we have a stronger and more engaged community that is actively rebuilding the city from the ground up. We rediscovered why we love Vallejo.
La’ Mirah King, PB Vallejo Youth Committee Member, said it best:
When you’re younger, you don’t really understand government. [PB] has been a great opportunity for you to be A PART of government and better the city you live in. And who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?!
Please join La’Mirah and me in improving our cities and developing more community leaders, by supporting the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) – the only organization in North America whose sole focus is advancing participatory budgeting.
Donations over the past year enabled PBP to work with more than 20,000 people in deciding how to spend more than $15 million on community improvement projects, nearly tripling the spread of PB in the United States. In just two years, PB has spread from Chicago to New York to Vallejo to San Francisco. And more and more cities are looking to PB as a model for transforming citizen-government relations.
With your support, PBP can take this movement to the next level. Help PBP continue transforming our democracy by making a donation at the level you can afford – $25, $50, $100 or more. Even better, double the impact of your gift through matching funds on Giving Tuesday!
And, if you donate before the end of 2013, you can also vote on how the donations are spent, through PBP’s own participatory budgeting process. That’s right, you can use PB to decide how to spend your contributions! Be a part of the movement. Donate to PBP, vote on how they should spend your money and find out in January which projects won!
Still not sure about PB and PBP? Check out PBP’s website and this video to learn more about the organization and how it is transforming communities and lives.
We can’t transform our democracy and develop more community leaders without you. Please make a gift to PBP for Giving Tuesday.
Thank you!
Marti Brown
Councilmember
City of Vallejo
P.S. Please make a Giving Tuesday donation now by sending PBP a check dated December 3 and pledging here, OR donate online this Tuesday.
