Fiscal Mapping for Government Spending on Children and Youth with the Children’s Funding Project and the State of Minnesota

Even though budget information is public and readily available, it is not always presented in a way conducive to answering complex questions about spending in specific areas or on important initiatives. However, knowing the answers to these questions is imperative for making informed and aligned budgeting decisions to support better outcomes within our communities. Children and Youth spending is a fantastic example of important spending on a pure public good that is not easily captured in one budget or one level of government. This webinar will explore how fiscal maps can be utilized, as a finance professional, to extract and analyze key funding details from the myriad of complex budget documents and distill that data into a format that lawmakers, administrators leading programs, advocates, and community members can use and understand. Speakers will highlight examples from the partnership between the Children's Funding Project and the State of Minnesota to show how complex budget information for government Children and Youth Service Programs can be summarized and how to transfer these lessons to other governments.

Who Will Benefit: Finance professionals interested in communicating complex budget information using fiscal mapping.

• Learn about the Children Funding Project Fiscal Maps and the power and possibilities of fiscal maps around children and youth
• Explore how the State of Minnesota has utilized fiscal maps
• Understand how the State of Minnesota populates and updates basic fiscal data through existing systems and sources
• Examine your own systems to see how more alignment around information for Children and Youth can bring better budgeting decisions, policy outcomes, and results for your youngest citizens.