Who Decides Where Money Goes?

Who Decides Where Money Goes? The Benefits of Participatory Funding

By Sasha Costanza-Chock, Shivaani Selvaraj, and Izabela Romanowska – December 2025.

What happens when communities get to decide how money is spent?

The research tells a remarkable story: infant mortality drops by nearly 20%, water and sewage infrastructure reaches previously unserved neighborhoods, and loan repayment rates exceed 90%, even among populations typically excluded by traditional finance.

Our new report, Who Decides Where Money Goes? The Benefits of Participatory Funding, examines decades of evidence from around the world about what happens when people closest to problems have real power over resource allocation. We analyzed four proven models—participatory budgeting, participatory grantmaking, participatory investing, and traditional & indigenous financial mechanisms—and found consistent evidence that community-controlled capital delivers measurably better outcomes for people and the planet.

The findings challenge a core assumption of our current economic system: that decisions about money are best left to distant experts and market forces. From Brazilian cities that reduced infant mortality through sustained participatory budgeting, to community lending programs that achieve repayment rates that rival or exceed traditional banks, the evidence points toward participatory funding: powerful community-controlled capital approaches that are hiding in plain sight.