About Us
Civic Trust launched in 2019 when founder Matt Harder decided to strike out on his own after consulting on two cycles of PB initiatives with the New York City Council, the largest program in North America.
After getting deeply involved with the process in New York City, Matt felt passionate about the benefits of PB and wanted to see it spread to other cities.
He noticed immediately that there was room for improvement, and started Civic Trust to help push the PB practice forward. He knew this could most easily be done by helping cities improve their process design, use of technology, and strategic communications. Matt realized that his expertise could lead to greater participation by local citizens and tangible results for cities everywhere.
A major lesson from his time working with New York City was that PB initiatives can be difficult to design and implement. For more cities to be equipped for PB, the process had to be refined and simplified and that is exactly what Civic Trust seeks to do.
Since we want to see every city implement PB, our first product is City PB. This affordable, and accessible platform helps cities either sponsor a PB initiative for the very first time, or improve on a process they’ve done for years.
We’d love to learn more about your city. Contact us for a free consultation.
Our Mission
To improve democratic participation through PB and other means, so that local citizens connect with their leaders, local officials engage with their constituents, and local governments promote inclusiveness and transparency.
Our Vision
We believe that democracy’s best days are ahead, and the United States will inspire democratic improvement throughout the world by transparent, representative and accountable government at home.
To start, we need to invest in projects like PB that get citizens involved and interested again at a local level. One day, PB will be a part of governance in every American city.
Our Values
Simply stated, we believe that 21st century citizens deserve 21st century governments. We want to see the digital revolution leveraged to make government more accessible, accountable, responsive and representative. Additionally, we would like our work with PB to:
- Find ways to be as inclusive as possible of all stakeholders while targeting outreach for those who are traditionally disengaged
- Building trust through transparency
- Removing hurdles to increased participation
“Working with Civic Trust was a delight. Both the behind the scenes technical development, and the public facing tools for digital community engagement, were dynamic and intuitive for all. As a result of the easy to use tools provided by Civic Trust, the project captured the interest of a wide spectrum audience which exceeded overall participant expectations. Our stakeholders are clamoring to pursue a similar process in the future.”
Wesley Brown, Director Planning and Capital Projects, Atlanta Downtown
In the future…
Our goal is to offer innovative, new tools and knowledge that will help align local citizens, officials, and governments to further improve engagement. Over time, we believe governments should innovate and improve, and that we must all participate for it to thrive in the 21st century. PB and the increased communications and use of technology that it provides is just the beginning.