Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process where community members can directly decide how to spend part of the City’s budget.

In Cambridge, community members begin by submitting their ideas for projects on how to spend the PB budget. Then, volunteer Cambridge residents, called PB Delegates, work alongside other delegates, Cambridge community members, and City staff to develop all the submitted ideas into 20 project proposals. The 20 project proposals are then presented to the public through a city-wide vote. Top vote-getting projects win funding and are implemented by the City in the following fiscal year.

The City hopes that Participatory Budgeting will directly involve residents in the budgeting and city-building process, foster civic engagement and community spirit, and help ensure that the City’s budget reflects the priorities of Cambridge residents and local partners.

The Outreach Committee approved the following five goals for the PB process:

1. Expand and Diversify Civic Engagement: Ensure that all community members have a voice in the development and improvement of their city, especially marginalized communities, reticent voters, and people with limited opportunities to engage in the political process.
2. Have Meaningful Social and Community Impact: Use PB as a tool to effect meaningful social change in the community. PB in Cambridge should be mission-driven and results-oriented.
3. Promote Sustainable Public Good: Make sustainable decisions that promote the long-term future and wellbeing of Cambridge residents.
4. Create Easy and Seamless Civic Engagement: Enable the community to be involved without barriers or frictions.  Create a welcoming space for residents to become engaged, fostering a "contagious" civic environment.
5. Promote Civic-mindedness: Help residents imagine themselves as civic actors and educate each other about their needs and lives. Provide youth with the opportunity and experience to become life-long voters and community leaders.

The City is setting aside $1 million of the FY26 budget for the 11th PB cycle. Projects are eligible for funding if they meet the following criteria:

• Benefit the public.
• Cost $1 million or less.
• If capital project
  • One-time expenditure
  • On City-owned property
    • Projects on CHA, DCR, and MBTA property are not eligible.
• If operating project:
  • Fixed project duration (up to 3 years)
• Consistent with existing City policies
• Implemented by the City of Cambridge
• Implemented after July 1, 2025 (the start of the next fiscal year)

Before being submitted to the public vote, all projects must be approved by City staff to ensure they meet the requisite need, impact, and feasibility criteria, and that they meet all legal requirements of capital and operating projects.

Operating Projects fund programs and services, including salaries. Multi-year operating PB projects can win funding for a maximum duration of three years. Once PB project funds are spent, the project will end. Cambridge’s 10th PB cycle was the first year operating projects were eligible for PB funding consideration. Many City services like trash and recycling collection, animal control, the Fire Department, and Cambridge Public Schools, involve operating funds.

Learn more about the City’s FY25 Operating Budget.

Capital Projects fund infrastructure improvements, typically things that are bought or built. Most capital projects have some sort of associated operating cost, like the ongoing cost to maintain and clean a public bathroom. Capital projects could include open space amenities, transportation infrastructure, vehicle purchases, technological materials, and much more. Examples of previous PB capital projects include youth center upgrades, electric vehicle charging stations, basketball court upgrades, water bottle filling stations, and tree plantings.

Learn more about the City’s FY25 Capital Budget.

The 11th PB cycle will run from August 2024 - March 2025 and include the following key phases:

• Community members brainstorm and submit ideas about how to spend $1 million of the City's FY26 Budget on projects to improve Cambridge (August 26 - October 1, 2024)
• Volunteer Participatory Budgeting Delegates research and prioritize ideas, ultimately developing final proposals for the PB Ballot (October 2024 - January 2025)
• City staff review proposals for need, impact, feasibility, and cost (January 2025)
• Residents vote on which projects they’d like the City to fund (March 2025)
• Results are announced and winning projects are included in the City’s FY26 Budget (March 2025)
• Winning projects are implemented (July 2025 onward)

PB Delegates are volunteer Cambridge residents who work in teams to research, evaluate, and prioritize the project ideas submitted by community members during idea collection. PB Delegates work for three months to develop and choose the final project proposals for the PB vote in March. The proposal development process involves site visits, community assessments, and consultations with City staff to evaluate a project's need, impact, feasibility, and cost.

During the PB10 process, 70+ PB Delegates worked in the following four committees to narrow down over 1,000 submitted PB ideas into 20 final project proposals for the ballot: Community Resources, Environment, Parks & Recreation, and Transportation Streets & Sidewalks.

If you are interested in volunteering as a PB Delegate, visit the Volunteer page for more information and the sign up form.

The PB11 vote will be held in March. Cambridge residents who are at least 12 years old (as well as students in the 6th grade), regardless of citizenship status, are eligible to vote in Participatory Budgeting. College/university students whose dorm/apartments are in Cambridge are also eligible to vote. Voters will be able to choose up to 5 of the 20 projects on the PB10 ballot. They do not need to rank their choices or do any math.

The PB10 online ballot was available in English, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Residents can also vote over the phone in English at (617) 349-4270 and in-person at multiple events around Cambridge. Paper ballots at in-person events last year were available in English, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Winning projects will be announced at a PB vote results party in March. You can read about winning projects from the last PB cycle here.

To learn more about the City’s Operating and Capital Budgets, property classifications, property valuation, and available tax exemptions and abatements read the 2023 Tax Rate Newsletter. More information about the City’s budget can also be found online on the Budget Department website.