How it works

Watch this brief video to learn more about how the Richmond People's Budget process works

The Richmond People's Budget is a process of direct democracy that is broken into 4 main phases

Idea Collection: We ask community members 14+ (regardless of immigration or post incarceration status) that live, work or study in an area a simple question "how would you improve your neighborhood?" - PB Staff takes their raw input via Idea Collection cards in person or online via a form hosted on this site.
Proposal Development: Our budget delegates (volunteers from the community) then sit in groups and deliberate on community needs. Then, they look to combine similar ideas into project proposals and use a scoring rubric (based on community impact) to grade projects. Project proposals with the highest scores are then presented back to departments within the city to assess feasibility and receive cost estimates. Those that are feasible and within a respective district's budget are eligible for the final ballot!
Voting: PB Staff takes the refined project proposals back out into the community and invites everyone 14+ (regardless of immigration or post incarceration status) that lives, works or studies in a district to vote! Community members are limited to vote in 1 district - even if they live, work and study in multiple districts.
Funding: Money is set aside from the upcoming budget to fund the (feasible) projects that were selected during the voting phase

There are additional phases that occur during the 'off year' (when staff is NOT collecting ideas).

Evaluation: PB Staff coordinates with partners (and openly accepts feedback from community) to refine the process, in efforts to improve it for the next cycle.
Design the process: Once evaluation has been completed PB Staff may redesign parts of the process.

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