Wow, can you believe that this year is almost over? 2024 has been a full year for us at PBP, one full of good work advancing participatory democracy, navigating transitions and changes on our team and work, and taking on new opportunities that have allowed us the chance to expand our reach and deepen our commitment to this work.
As it comes to a close, we want to wrap it up with some of our favorite highlights and moments from this year:
✨ Jan: Spectrum of Community Engagement
Our Communications Associate Robbie Barton got a start on the year by unpacking the Spectrum of Community Engagement, a tool developed in 2019 by Rosa González of Facilitating Power in partnership with Movement Strategy Center.
The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Community Ownership is an orientation and relationship/power mapping tool that can be used in community organizing and shared spaces to engage in a constructive conversation about what’s possible, address gaps in equity, unlock opportunities, and redirect our processes towards community ownership.
✨ Feb - March: PB² Community Vote!
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.
In early 2024, we had over 100 people from across our community vote to choose their favorite project between four proposals prepared by volunteer budget delegates. We have reserved $20,000 of our organizational budget for the winning project: Trainings for Young PB Leaders.
A huge thanks to everyone who participated in this PB process! Read more about the process and results on our PB² results announcement blog.
✨ Feb - March: NPQ + M4BL article series
The Vision for Black Lives: An Economic Policy Agenda, a series of powerful articles co-produced by Nonprofit Quarterly and Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) explored the intersection of racial and economic justice. Each article in the 6-part series touches on a key intervention or approach for how we can and must move to community control, reparations, thriving communities and ultimately Black liberation.
Our Director of Strategic Communications, Rahel Teka, contributed to the series with an insightful piece on how participatory budgeting can be a powerful tool for economic justice and racial justice and brought their tenacious wisdom and energy to the March webinar panel about the series.
✨ March: DBE Spring Learning Session
At the Democracy Beyond Election Coalition’s Spring Learning Session, Alex Renirie of partner organization Healthy Democracy gave an overview of Civic Assemblies and kicked off a robust discussion about the advantages and challenges of various methods and how assemblies fit with other democratic reforms.
Catch the full replay to hear the discussion and learn more about civic assemblies!
✨ March - April: LA REPAIR PB Vote!
This year, our team had the opportunity to support the LA REPAIR participatory budgeting process, which operated two PB cycles to allocate approximately $8.5M through a participatory process in LA’s most marginalized communities.
In early 2024 during the second cohort, over 5,500 community members ages 15+ in six LA REPAIR zones cast their PB ballots on program proposals submitted by community organizations and vetted by budget delegates.
✨ June - Aug: Staff Transitions and New Staff
This was a year of staff transitions, as we said a tearful goodbyes to two of our co-Executive Directors, Kristina Banks and Shari Davis. Shari penned a farewell blog on their reflections, what’s next for PBP, and how you can continue to build democracy with us. Our Director of Strategic Initiatives Elizabeth Crews stepped up to be our Acting Executive Director!
We also added some new folks to the team this year, including our NJ Advocacy Manager Nisha Thompson, our Curriculum Development Specialist George Ygarza, and our Participation Lab Research Fellow Gina Hakim. You can read their bios on our staff page.
✨ August: PB and Public Health Webinar
As part of our PB Seeds New Jersey program outreach, we co-hosted a powerful webinar with the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute on how PB can promote health and has transformed the way community members interact with public health structures. We heard incredible wisdom and examples from panelists from Denver, Rhode Island, and New Jersey about PB processes with health focus in action. We are excited to continue to working with our partners to promote public health with PB!
✨ Sept - Oct: PB Seeds New Jersey's 1st Cohort
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we successfully convened the first PB Seeds New Jersey cohort! PB Seeds is our new, state-based advocacy training program that connects and equips leaders and advocates with knowledge, tools, and connections in order to advocate for PB in their communities.
Over five intensive learning sessions, we trained eight selected community leaders from across NJ on how to advocate for and run a PB process. They even got the chance to practice with a Mock PB cycle! By the end of the cohort, they left with an advocacy plan to take back to their community and access to coaching and support sessions from us as they start to organize for PB. Read more about the first cohort, plus stay tuned in 2025 for information about our next one!
✨ October: PB CLE Case Study
In October, the Democracy Beyond Elections Coalition debuted their newest case study about local advocates’ inspiring efforts to win participatory budgeting in Cleveland, OH. In 2023, People’s Budget Cleveland launched a historic ballot initiative to direct the City of Cleveland to put aside funds equivalent to 2% of the City of Cleveland’s General Fund each year towards participatory budgeting.
While the vote was razor thin, the measure did not pass. This campaign built on previous advocacy efforts to ask the city government to allocate $30.8 million of American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) funds towards participatory budgeting.
This important movement resource was compiled from interviews with key members of the campaign and co-written by coalition members Petula Hanley, Jeremy Payne, and Philippa Rizopoulos. Read the full case study!
✨ November: DBE Fall Peer Learning Session
For their Fall Peer Learning Session, Democracy Beyond Elections gathered youth leaders from across the nation to share their work and experiences with participatory democracy practices. During the event, DBE’s remarkable, inspiring young panelists shared about approaches like People’s Movement Assemblies, youth voting, and school participatory budgeting that are essential to building a robust, inclusive democracy driven by youth. Tune in for the full replay!
✨ December: End of Year Giving and Looking Ahead
Together, we’re continuing to dream big for participatory democracy into 2025 and beyond. While doing the internal work needed to ensure PBP reflects our organizational values of equity, transparency, and experimentation, we are also leveling up our library of resources, training more community leaders on participatory budgeting, and organizing an in-person learning exchange in 2025. We are excited to bring PBP into the next phase of its evolution as a sustainable, resilient organization.
And we need you to make it happen! As the leading organization advocating for and growing participatory budgeting in the United States, PBP needs your support to ensure the continuation of this important work at this moment.
Will you invest in democracy with us? Make a donation today to help us build this movement.
