How would you spend $20,000 to make participatory democracy better?
Thanks to everyone who participated! We have tallied the votes and our 2023 winning project is Trainings for Young PB Leaders.
Each year, the Participatory Budgeting Project invites our partners, supporters, and donors to decide how a portion of our budget is spent – it’s our own participatory budgeting process, called PB². It’s your opportunity to do PB with us!
Through this process, we practice democracy and build greater shared decision-making power, accountability, and transparency into how our organization spends our funds.
The PB² process is guided by a Steering Committee made up of PBP staff members. Our supporters, donors, and community members participate by submitting ideas, volunteering as budgeting delegates to help develop proposals, and voting!
Once the voting tally is complete, we will announce the winners and make plans to implement through our organization. Your ideas become projects for our team to advance participatory democracy and build community power.
How to Get Involved
1. Submit your idea!
That’s right -- anyone who is committed to advancing equitable participatory democracy can submit your ideas to help us make participatory budgeting and participatory democracy more equitable, accessible, and impactful.
2. Join the budget delegate committee!
As a Budget Delegate, you will take promising ideas from our community members and turn them into exciting projects that our supporters can vote on this spring!
The Budget Delegate Committee will include Staff, Amplifiers, Partners, and members of our Boards. Becoming a Budget Delegate is a great way to get to know different members of the organization, build new skills, and gain hands-on experience in participatory budgeting.
And you don’t need to have prior experience or knowledge on participatory democracy to participate—our staff will provide expertise and be here to support you throughout the process.
The committee will meet biweekly or monthly during the proposal development phase.
3. Vote on the winning proposals!
We invite our community to vote on how to make participatory democracy more equitable, accessible, and significant! Voting takes place online and is open to anyone who is committed to advancing equitable participatory democracy. Click the link above to Vote!
Frequently Asked Questions
To be eligible to move forward in the PB cycle, an idea should:
- Be specific, measurable, and require funds to be implemented.
- Be feasible for PBP to implement in 2024.
- Cost no more than $10,000.
- Resource opportunities that allow PBP to do work that expands participatory democracy that is equitable, accessible, and significant.
Our overall pot of funds is $25,000. If the winning projects exceed the available pot of funds, what will we do?
- PBP will fund the project with the next most votes that can be fully funded
*In the event that a winning project is not able to be funded, the idea will be considered for implementation if resources become available.
Timeline for the 2023 Process
Idea Collection Begins
Idea Collection Closes
Develop Proposals
Voting Period
Announce Winning Projects
Need Support completing the forms or have questions about the process?
We strive to ensure all individuals can participate fully throughout the PB² process and will be happy to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
If you need support participating during the process, including completing any of the above forms, please email Robbie Barton at robbie@participatorybudgeting.org.
Requests should be made at least seven days prior to the specific phase closing.
Check out past winning projects
Watch our PB in Schools video
A deep dive into the a real PB process in Phoenix, AZ, this video is an opportunity to hear directly from the students and the adults around them how and why PB is civics in action, and how PBP can help you bring PB to your school, district, or community!
Download our Outreach Toolkit
We created this Toolkit to help PB practitioners strengthen their processes to be more equitable and inclusive. Though designed for PB leaders, we’re happy to share it with anyone fighting for more participatory democracy.
Download the free “Guide to Participatory Budgeting in Schools”
A series of lesson plans for high schools, which can be modified for all age levels.