Case Study: City and County of Denver achieves more equitable participatory budgeting with Polco's Balancing Act

City and County of Denver engages residents with Polco to allocate $2 million through participatory budgeting

The City and County of Denver sought to build authentic relationships and rebuild trust with residents in historically underserved communities through a more inclusive civic process. To achieve this, they partnered with Polco to implement a tech-enabled participatory budgeting program called "Let’s Budget, Denver," which utilized Polco's Balancing Act Prioritize tool for digital voting.

Polco's solution facilitated a dynamic and modern voting phase, enabling the city to conduct outreach in unconventional locations and offer ballots in eight languages. This equitable approach resulted in over 3,100 ballots being cast by residents. The program successfully allocated $2 million to nine community-chosen projects, fostering significant civic engagement and earning Denver an award for its innovative participatory budgeting efforts.

City and County of Denver