Participatory Budgeting Project is a nonprofit organisation that helps public institutions and communities design and run participatory budgeting processes. Its core idea is straightforward: residents decide how to spend a portion of a public budget. The organisation describes this as giving people “real power over real money” and says its work is aimed at making public budgets more equitable and effective.
The group operates mainly in the United States and Canada, but its model is part of a global democratic practice that has spread far beyond North America. Participatory budgeting itself began in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1989. Since then, it has been used in thousands of public budgets worldwide, across cities, schools, universities, states and other institutions.
On its website, Participatory Budgeting Project presents three main lines of work: education and advocacy, a “Participation Lab” for developing and testing tools, and technical assistance for organisations that want to launch PB processes. It offers project planning, training, coaching and materials for schools, communities and public bodies.
The organisation’s public-facing work also includes campaign support around equitable participation and democratic reform. In practice, that means helping stakeholders move from idea collection to proposal development, voting and implementation. The website’s blog points to recent activity in New Jersey, suggesting the organisation continues to support local pilots and advocacy efforts.
The site does not clearly identify a founding date in the provided metadata, but the publication history and organisational profile show an established nonprofit with a national role in PB implementation and policy support.