GFOA established the Budget Award Program in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and GFOA's best practices on budgeting and to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. In 2026, GFOA is updating the award criteria and focus of the program to include all budget communications including the budget document, websites, dashboards, multimedia, and other forms of communications between a government and its elected representatives, the public, or other external stakeholders (“public stakeholders”). The revised criteria encourage clarity of budget information, effective communication tools, transparency of budget decisions, and production of a clear budget message the communicates key themes to public stakeholders. 

Since GFOA last updated the criteria, trends in budgeting and technological advances have significantly changed the way that leading governments communicate budget information to stakeholders. Websites, dashboards, newsletters, videos, and other popular media can be more effective than a lengthy PDF document for communicating key messages. We have heard feedback from members that current criteria is outdated, rigid, and providing a barrier to innovation and improved communications – or at minimum, creating non-value added work effort.  

We want program criteria to promote greater understanding of budget decisions, allow our members the ability to innovate, evolve, and be responsive to local expectations, and to promote use of technology and other tools that may be available for governments of all sizes and types.

 Updates to the program are focused on encouraging governments to have a clear “budget message”--  high-quality communications that allow the public to understand key takeaways budget and how budget decisions were made.  GFOA has worked to “rethink” the budget award criteria and provide a new structure that answers key questions that are critical to understanding the budget of your organization. 

Below are major changes to the format of the program: 

• Eliminate mandatory criteria – We recognize that all governments and communities are different and want to recognize you for what you communicate, not penalize you for missing information that may not be a high priority for your audience. 
• Focus on budgeting – The program has expanded to include elements of strategic planning, performance measures, financial policies and more. We will encourage transparency around how the budget impacts those related planning processes, but they are not part of the actual budget. 
• Consider all forms of the budget message – The budget document is only one of many ways that governments communicate budget information.  
• Criteria focused on questions – Program criteria will provide questions to answer and challenge participants to answer the question in the most appropriate way for your audience. Criteria will not be prescriptive on how to layout your budget message.