Traditional surveys capture opinions—but they don’t force residents to confront budget constraints and scarce resources. The Budget Simulator introduces a fixed purse of dollars or points, turning abstract preferences into practical trade‑offs.
What It’s Great For
Use Case | Typical Owner | Outcome |
Participatory budgeting for annual Budget or CIP | Budget & Finance | Ranked, cost‑aware project list |
Transportation project prioritization | MPO / DOT | Priorities for STIP or MTP |
Thematic funding (Comprehensive Plan, parks, public safety) | Planning | Clear community mandate on focus areas |
How It Works
Set a Budget – Define total funds and an optional minimum spend.
Add Projects – Each card includes title, description, image, and max cost.
Residents Allocate Funds – Slider UI shows live remaining balance and blocks overspend.
Submit + Confirm – Optional contact capture and email opt‑in.
Analyze Results – Dashboard summarizes totals, averages, and “best‑fit” project bundles; export to CSV/XLSX for deeper analysis.
Results for your funding allocator question can be reviewed through your response data export.
Customization Options
Layout – 1‑ to 4‑column grid or single‑column list.
Image Aspect Ratios – Wide (16:9), standard (4:3), or square (1:1). Images auto‑optimize for mobile/desktop.
Max Cost per Project – Match reality or allow full‑budget allocation.
Randomize Order – Reduce first‑choice bias with one click.
Contact Fields – Use account‑level defaults or add custom fields (e.g., address, district).
Opt‑In & Auto‑Email – Trigger a follow‑up campaign immediately after submission.
View‑Only Mode – Keep results visible after the question closes, locking further edits.
Introduction to Funding Allocator
Lets take a look at how to set up this question!
Step 1: Adding the Question
On the Page & Survey tab to create a new survey question, click the green Add Question button.
From here, choose the Funding Allocator question from the question bank that pops up.
Step 2: Write the Question Prompt
If you do not type in your own question prompt, the default prompt "Please select the options you want funded while staying within budget." will be used.
The explainer text is a great opportunity to mention the budget limit or further explain the feedback you're looking for. (e.g. select your top options.)
Don't forget to save your Text Changes before moving on!
Step 3: Setting your Budget and Visual Options
Next you'll want to set the total budget available to allocate. Participants will also be able to choose a minimum amount that their allocations need to add up to.
You can also choose how many columns we'll separate the slider choices into. In the example above, we'll have two options side-by-side, before going on to the next row.
Finally, we'll choose the aspect ratio of any pictures that are include with each budget slider.
Step 4: Add your Funding Options (Responses)
This is where we'll add the options your participants will choose from.
Select the New Funding Option Button
Set the Title to display at the top of the funding option
Set the Max Cost that participants can add to this option
Set your description - this will appear below the Title
(optional) set a picture you'd like to display above the funding option. It's sizing will depend on the Aspect Ratio setting in step 3.
If 0 is left on Max Cost, or the value is left empty, it will default to the value of your Total Budget
Repeat these steps for each Funding Option you'd like to add!
Step 5: Collection Settings
Finally, to help avoid selection bias, you can choose to randomize the order the funding options will be presented.
This is also where you can choose to collect contact info to tie the response to the participants information. This allows you to choose what pieces of information you'd like to collect, and which are required to submit alongside their submission.
And with that, congratulations! You've successfully create a funding allocation question! When used along side Budget Questions, and our other question tools, you can create a comprehensive view of participant sentiment!
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