Participatory Budgeting Best Practice Guide

Participatory budgeting is an engagement tool that provides your community with direct input into how resources are allocated. When configured effectively, it can increase engagement and help ensure budgets reflect community priorities. This guide will assist you in setting up your Budgets tool for optimal outcomes.

Why configuration choices matter

Research indicates that how you configure your participatory budgeting process influences how participants vote and make budgeting decisions. These configuration decisions will have implications for equity and engagement outcomes in your community. 

Designing your Budgeting tool effectively

Choosing your budget type

When setting up your Budgets tool, you can choose between Money ($), Points, or a Custom unit. Each option may create a different experience for participants.

• Points or custom units (such as "tokens" or "stars") may reduce decision anxiety and encourage exploration—this can be particularly valuable for youth budgeting or first-time participants
• Money ($) provides concrete, real-world context but may create more hesitation about allocation decisions
• Regardless of your choice, ensure the conversion to real currency (if applicable) is clearly communicated

Budget amount

The size of your budget can influence participation levels. Research suggests that budgets need to feel substantial enough to justify the time investment required for participation.

Considerations:

• Consider budgets that feel meaningful to your community—what constitutes "meaningful" will vary based on your context and available resources
• A pilot programme can help test engagement levels before scaling up
• If working with a smaller budget, consider using Points or a Custom unit name rather than dollar ($) amounts in your Budgets tool—this can help participants focus on priorities and trade-offs rather than feeling constrained by the monetary value. Though be sure if your budget is constrained, communicate clearly about limitations and realistic outcomes

Managing the number of proposals

The number of proposals can affect participant experience. Too many options may lead to decision fatigue, whilst too few may feel restrictive.

Research-based guidance:

• Evidence suggests 7-12 proposals work well for most contexts
• If you have more proposals, consider using categories to organise them (e.g. parks, schools, transport, social services)
• Multiple voting rounds can be effective for larger proposal sets—for example, different rounds for recreation and infrastructure

Setting minimum spend requirements

The Minimum spend to submit field in your Budgets tool can encourage thoughtful participation, but should be used judiciously.

Considerations:

• If using minimum requirements, keep them relatively low (around 10-30% of total budget)
• Consider whether a minimum is necessary—research indicates most participants will allocate their budget without mandated requirements
• If you implement minimums, provide clear rationale (e.g. "to encourage consideration of multiple options")

Communicating about unallocated budget

Participants should understand what happens to any budget they don't allocate. Uncertainty of remaining budget can lead participants to make decisions to select the proposals to "use it all" or abandon the process out of confusion. Being explicit about unallocated budget helps participants make informed, confident decisions.

When to encourage full allocation:

Consider emphasising the value of using the full budget when:

• You want to maximise the number of funded projects
• Unallocated funds won't roll over to additional projects
• The community has worked hard to develop proposals and would benefit from seeing more projects funded

When to allow underspending:

Some contexts benefit from allowing participants to leave budget unallocated:

• If none of the remaining proposals align with a participant's values, forcing allocation may result in arbitrary choices
• Unallocated funds could roll over to partially fund the next highest-ranked project
• You want to signal that it's acceptable to be selective rather than feeling obligated to spend everything

After the vote: implementation matters

Once voting closes, clear and consistent communication about what happens next is essential. Implementing winning proposals and how you communicate throughout the implementation process can be equally critical for maintaining trust and encouraging participation in future rounds.

Implementation considerations:

• Establish clear, realistic timelines for implementing winning proposals
• Create public tracking tools so the community can follow progress
• Communicate regularly about implementation status, including any challenges or delays
• Evaluate each cycle and use learnings to improve the next round

Getting started with your Budgets tool

To set up your first participatory budgeting exercise, refer to our Getting started with Budgets guide for step-by-step configuration instructions.