RELATED STORY: New Report Surveys Growth of Participatory Budgeting

Public Agenda, a nonpartisan organization that fosters progress on divisive issues through research and public engagement, is working to evaluate and maximize the impact of participatory budgeting across North America. Public Agenda will develop national standards and shared tools for evaluating participatory budgeting, support and coordinate local evaluations, aggregate and analyze data from across sites, gather perspectives on the process from elected officials, and communicate their findings to advance and broaden the best practices in participatory budgeting. For example, to better understand the effects of digital tools, Public Agenda will analyze potential associations between using these tools and key outcomes like participation levels. The results will guide improvements in these tools and in the overall process, with the ultimate goal of helping participatory budgeting to fulfill its democratic potential.