Rethinking Budgeting Readiness Assessment Workshop

Local governments have long relied on last year’s budget to make incremental, line-item changes around the margins to make next year’s budget. Though this form of budgeting has advantages and can be useful in times of stability, it can also make local governments slow to adapt in times of rapid change, like the volatile and uncertain times we live in today. GFOA’s Rethinking Budgeting initiative considers new ways of thinking, new technologies, and updated practices to better meet the changing needs of communities. GFOA has developed a tool to assess your organization’s readiness to rethink budgeting. At this interactive workshop, you will learn what it means to rethink budgeting, become familiar with the resources GFOA has developed to do so, and learn how to use the assessment tool in your organization.  

Due to the holistic nature of Rethinking Budgeting initiative, we encourage you to bring budget stakeholders from different areas of your organizations to this workshop, including: 

• Executive management
• Finance and budget
• Communications and community engagement
• Strategy, performance, and innovation
• Departmental operations

Who Will Benefit: High level government budgeting personnel

• Discuss what it means to “rethink budgeting”
• Evaluate your current budget practices
• Identify the resources GFOA has developed to help you rethink budgeting for your organization
• Develop an action plan that outlines specific focus areas and recommended next steps for your organization