10 Steps to Modernize and More Effectively Communicate Your Budget
10 Steps to Modernize and More Effectively Communicate Your Budget
DownloadThe traditional approach to communicating the annual budget is to provide an overwhelming amount of information about revenues and expenditures, which are included in many different schedules, highlighting funds, departments, and line items. This approach often leads to a bloated, boring budget book that frustrates the target audience—elected officials and the public. GFOA’s new budget award criteria were designed with these criticisms in mind. The revamped program challenges all governments to adopt a new strategy for budget communication—one that focuses on answering simple questions concisely and in ways that stakeholders outside the finance department will understand. Here we provide practical strategies for improving budget communications and help governments prepare award-winning budget communications.
Publication Date: December 2025
