Budget Challenge Licensing

Looking for an online tool to educate your community about local budget priorities? Download the full PDF of information here.

What is it?

We created the nonpartisan California Budget Challenge in 2005 as a public service to educate and engage Californians on the trade-offs and tough choices involved in building the state's General Fund budget. The Challenge presents a series of spending and revenue options that impact the starting surplus or deficit accordingly, educating users about the budget and different policy options along the way.

Since then, we expanded the tool so that communities across the country can access and localize the software for their own use—whether to educate constituents about local budgets or as an educational tool for nonprofits and school districts. More than 560,000 Californians and thousands more across the country have taken the Challenge. Local governments, non-profits, and school groups are using it regularly to educate residents on budget issues. Your city or state could be the next ones to benefit from this engaging outreach tool!

By licensing the Challenge, you would be provided your own unique application to customize into your local Budget Challenge. The easy-to-use content management system allows you to enter your own spending and revenue questions, policy options, background info, and more—all without any programming or technical skills necessary. Options for multiple languages are also available. To view examples of a custom application, please view the San Francisco Budget Challenge or the Peoria Budget Challenge and see what you can do with your own license. More examples are at the bottom of the page.

Who is it for?

Any community can license and use the Budget Challenge, including cities, states, and school districts. It's also a great tool for nonprofits that are seeking to educate communities and students about policy and budgetary processes. The Challenge has been developed for partners across the US and internationally and can include language options. We have worked with: municipalities such as San Francisco and Washington D.C.; school districts such as Los Angeles USD and Oakland USD; and nonprofits such as the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia.

What is the cost?

The license is a one-time only cost that includes both use of the software and all hosting fees. Your community can update your Budget Challenge as often as you would like at no additional fee in order for your constituents to have the most current data possible. Next 10 will also assist with set up and teaching how to use the software. There may exist some flexibility on cost for smaller municipalities and nonprofits.

How long does it take?

Next 10 will provide everything needed to get your Challenge up and running, aside from the content. Licensees have complete control of the content within the overview page, demographic questions and data collected, and all spending/revenue choices. Once the content is compiled, it can be entered into the content system and published live in under a week. We will work with you on testing to ensure that everything is working properly before being made live.

What are some Budget Challenge examples?
California Budget Challenge	Federal Budget Challenge
Belvue eduBEL Budget Challenge	City of San Francisco Budget Challenge
City of Peoria Budget Challenge	Union City Budget Challenge

Want to learn more? Call Stephanie Leonard at 415-957-0202 ext.1014, or email stephanie@next10.org for more information.