Models for Participatory Budgeting

Adam Jackson and John Brothers of the T. Rowe Price foundation, and also featured a diverse
cross section of youth, elders, nonprofit professionals, and representatives from the government
who were installed as non-voting, ex officio members. This task force created recommendations
that the youth fund should focus on capacity building for grassroots institutions, an area seen as
essential but often underinvested in by philanthropic institutions. The task force also stated that a
local Black foundation, Associated Black Charities (ABC), should hold the fund and administer
the creation of a grant review team made up of a representative cross section of Baltimorians whose
task would be to evaluate grant proposals, rank them and decide where the money was allocated.
ABC was selected because they were the only institution in the region with expertise in and an
explicit focus on racial equity. Larger pots of money were reserved explicitly for organizations
which submitted cooperative proposals, creating incentives for cooperation rather than incentives
for competition among organizations. Finally, the task force stated that institutions should not have
to be 501c3 nonprofit organizations to receive funds, and recognized that formal nonprofit
incorporation is a barrier to entry for many community-based youth service providers. The
ordinance which established the youth fund was a codification of the task force recommendations.
The fund began its work in 2018. ABC subcontracted to a Black consulting firm, Frontline
Solutions, which included Black consultants with experience working in Baltimore (Annie E.
Casey Foundation) and handled much of the technical assistance. First, informational meetings
were held throughout the city, preparing potential grantees on how to write their proposals and
explaining the evaluation criteria for this grant, which would be different than traditional grants.
It would include an explicit racial equity lens and focus on capacity building for typically
underfunded grassroots institutions. After the RFP went out, a call for individuals to serve on the
grant review team also went out, offering a competitive hourly salary for serving as a citizen grant
reviewer. The reviewers were selected with an emphasis on geographic and racial equity, which
made the review team reflective of the demographic of the city. Other priorities included nonprofit
experience, social justice advocacy experience, and personal experience, such as providing or
receiving youth services. After reviewing 400 proposals, totaling over 70 million dollars in
requested funds, the grant reviewers ranked proposals based upon the selected criteria. After
combining the rankings, the portfolio of institutions was examined by the youth fund and it
announced 65 organizations for funding (Associated Black Charities, 2018).
Jackson Model - People’s Assembly
While falling more into the space of “participatory planning,” the model from Jackson,
Mississippi must be included, as it served in part as inspiration for the Baltimore model.
Jackson, Mississippi may appear as an unlikely model for progressive government in
America, yet its current progressive political leadership is a reflection of decades of grassroots
organizing. In 2013, decades after coming to Mississippi from Detroit as a member of the Republic
of New Africa, progresive lawyer Chokwe Lumumba was elected mayor of Jackson. The victory
was a victory not just for him, but also for the powerful civil society forces which brought him to
the mayor’s seat, specifically the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Cooperation Jackson.
4151 Park Heights Avenue, Suite 207, Baltimore, MD 21215 • www.lbsbaltimore.com • (410) 374-7683