People’s Budget Birmingham (PBB) was born in 2020 out of the convergence of crisis and collective imagination. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the national uprising following the murder of George Floyd, Birmingham residents came together to demand a more just and transparent city budget. As the City sought to pass one of the largest police budgets in history (while simultaneously threatening to close public libraries), local organizers, mutual aid networks, and community partners began to ask: what if the people of Birmingham, not politicians or power brokers, decided how our public dollars are spent?
Drawing inspiration from the Los Angeles People’s Budget model, PBB launched as a rapid-response coalition of eight grassroots organizations and dozens of volunteers. With less than two hundred dollars in its first year, the group surveyed hundreds of Birmingham residents and produced the People’s Priorities Report in 2020, a community-driven blueprint for public investment. Pop-ups with Birmingham Mutual Aid, partnerships with neighborhood organizations, viral social media campaigns, and collective actions during city budget hearings helped establish PBB as a leading voice for transparent, participatory governance.
2021 was a period of reflection for the coalition. Then, in 2022, the coalition evolved from a loose network into a structured, data-driven campaign. With support from an external fellowship, Gabriel Cabán Cubero launched PBB’s first canvassing program and raised more than $100,000 to build a lasting field organizing effort. In 2023 and 2024, PBB continued its deep canvassing campaigns and hosted two People’s Movement Assemblies (spaces where residents envisioned what participatory budgeting could look like in practice) and helped shape the foundation for a potential formal city ordinance.
PBB existed as a fiscally sponsored project of SWEET Alabama (Sustainable Water, Energy, and Economic Transition in Alabama) from 2022 – 2025. In 2025, PBB became its own independent 501(c)(3) organization.