Community involvement in PB

A report commissioned by the Participatory Budgeting Project that provides insights about behavioral barriers to participation and proposes solutions for better involving PB budget delegates.

There are many ways for people to engage in participatory budgeting, from suggesting project ideas to voting and encouraging others to vote.

But one of the most crucial roles is the volunteer budget delegate - community members who dedicate their time to developing neighborhood improvement ideas into concrete project proposals eligible for PB funding for a final ballot. Sustained budget delegate participation is essential for participatory budgeting to work as intended. In the absence of meaningful delegate participation, residents have little voice in shaping project proposals or determining which ones move forward to the ballot. To facilitate effective engagement of budget delegates, the Participatory Budgeting Project asked the ideas42 Behavioral Design Center (BDC) to provide insights about behavioral barriers to participation and propose solutions. We applied a behavioral lens to the problem and provided behaviorally informed recommendations and outreach flyer templates.

Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

Year of publication: 2020