Systemic Altruism
← Back to the cohort
Justice & public goodsPreliminary editorial review

Participatory Budgeting Project

Helps communities and public institutions design participatory budgeting through training, practical materials and implementation assistance.

Visit the organization ↗

Systemic Altruism practice potential: 73–83/100
90% of weighted axes reviewed. A mechanism hypothesis, not proven effectiveness or a donation recommendation.

Who this work enables

Tools & support for charities: Training, planning materials, technical assistance and evaluation support for organizations implementing participatory budgets.

Humanity’s Checklist source match

Coordination · Gatekeepers — editorial, partial alignment.

Shared implementation methods can help communities coordinate and gain a defined role in resource allocation. Actual public authority, fair participation and completed delivery must be established separately.

Explicit checklist adoption: not verified. A mechanism match is not an affiliation, endorsement, evidence of effectiveness or a scoring bonus. Read the practice.

Focus classification: 2026-10-27. Based on the organization’s dated official sources below; earlier axis-review dates are unchanged.

Compare alternatives for a funder →

The proposed pathway

Implementation support for consequential community allocation of public budgets

Six dimensions, with rationale

Structural depth

4 / 4

The proposed mechanism changes budget-allocation rules by giving communities a formal role in public spending decisions.

Institutional reach

3 / 4

Training and assistance can support multiple institutions and communities, principally in the US and Canada; project totals do not establish population-level benefits.

Durability

2 / 4

Participatory processes can become recurring practice, but budget holders, allocation size, legal authority and political support can change.

Scalability

3 / 4

Shared materials and training support replication, while accessible recruitment, facilitation, enforceable rules and delivery require local capacity.

Funding additionality

Unreviewed

Unknown: current unrestricted needs, fee-funded assistance, alternatives and whether another grant expands consequential rather than nominal participation were not audited.

Community agency

Unreviewed

Unknown: allocating a defined budget can confer real authority, but the scope, representativeness, enforcement and organizational accountability of specific processes were not audited here.

Evidence and selection

Organization reported; current primary mechanism sources inspected

Illustrative inclusion to examine this mechanism. Inclusion is not an external recommendation or a verified comparative ranking.

A testable next question

Do supported processes deliver verified community-chosen spending and equitable benefits with enduring decision rights, compared with realistic alternatives and full implementation costs?

Review confidence: Moderate for documented design; low for systemic attribution. Participatory Budgeting Project Inc., the US nonprofit identified by EIN 45-3858268; the review covers its support model, not all participatory budgeting worldwide or the separate People Powered organization.

What remains uncertain

Token budgets, exclusion, elite capture, non-delivery and displacement of other public participation can undermine benefits. Staff participation in organizational decisions is distinct from community control. The dated IRS record corroborates identity only; no outcome or tax-advice claim follows.

Sources to inspect

Propose a sourced correction →

Axis review: 2026-10-27 · weighting method v0.2 (2026-10-26) · Method, conflicts and coverage