Proposal Development  

The goal of the proposal development phase is for each issue committee to produce 2 proposals for the ballot. Each proposal consists of a title, short description & a budget.  To create these short descriptions for the ballot, you will have to produce a more in-depth proposal that city staff can check to make sure it can be feasibly implemented and give you feedback on.  

To develop your proposals, you will follow an iterative process of generating ideas, prioritizing, researching, writing, and getting feedback with help from PB staff. Each round you’ll narrow down the number of proposals you are working on and develop them in more detail. In the first round, your issue committee will develop a maximum of 6-7 proposals and get feedback from the PB manager.  In the second round, you’ll develop these proposals further and get feedback from city staff. In the third round, you’ll choose a maximum of 3-4 proposals to develop further and get more feedback from city staff.  In the final round, you’ll choose your final 2 proposals and make minor changes to prepare them for the ballot.   

You’ll develop your proposal using this proposal template. 

Example: Pre-vetting

For the pre-vetting deadline (March 20), you’ll want to submit proposals that allow the PB Manager to check that the proposal is something the city can do, which department might be able to give feedback on the proposal, and a rough idea of cost so that department can give feedback on feasibility.

For pre-vetting, you should provide a title, description (no more than 500 words), need, cost, and budget items. Your proposal might look something like this:

  • Title: Microloans to Small Business

  • Description: This program should begin with an investment of $100,000 which would support 10-20 $5,000-$10,000 loans. The City Office of Economic Development should recruit 10 businesses who lack access to traditional capital with the greatest need and at risk of closing, provide them the loan, then track the businesses over a 2 year period with current staff handling regular repayments. At the end of the trial, the City should then report out the number of businesses that remained open and the jobs created over time.

  • Need: A survey from the Evanston Chamber of Commerce found that as a direct result of COVID-19, 480 employees have lost their jobs and dozens of businesses have permanently closed their doors (Smith, 2020). Many Evanstonians have expressed how this has taken a toll on the local economy and have watched beloved businesses close due to financial strain (McKadden and Spoto, 2021). 

  • Cost: $106,000

  • Budget

    • loans: $100,000

    • administration: $5000

    • advertising: $1000

When your proposals are ready for pre-vetting, save them in a word doc titled “proposals” in your issue committee’s sharepoint folder and email Matthew Ouren <mouren@cityofevanston.org> that they are ready for pre-vetting.

Example: Full Proposal

For Vetting 1 (April 24) & Vetting 2 (Jun 5), submit a full proposal like the following:

  • Ballot Information

    • Title: Micro-loans to Small Business

    • Description: Provide 10-20 micro-loans to small businesses to create 50 new jobs.

    • Cost: $106,000

    • Co-sponsors: Main-Dempster Kilometer (John Doe, jd@mdk.com)

  • Need: A survey from the Evanston Chamber of Commerce found that as a direct result of COVID-19, 480 employees have lost their jobs and dozens of businesses have permanently closed their doors (Smith, 2020). Many Evanstonians have expressed how this has taken a toll on the local economy and have watched beloved businesses close due to financial strain (McKadden and Spoto, 2021). 

  • Solution: This program should begin with an investment of $100,000 which would support 10-20 $5,000-$10,000 loans.

  • Impact/Outcome: At $2000 of investment per job, a $100,000 infusion into such a program in Evanston could create up to 50 new jobs in the City. 

  • Feasibility & Existing Solutions: At an interest rate of 10%, these loans will pay back on themselves thus creating a sustainable program that can last beyond the current crisis. Private-led microloans programs in Evanston have been incredibly popular and successful, especially for women and minority entrepreneurs (Wright, 2010, Holland, 2017).  Cities such as Chicago, Wichita, and Baltimore have instituted microloans programs to support the economic success of local businesses (Mayor’s Press Office, 2013; Kelly, 2021; Baltimore Community Lending, 2021). In Chicago, 80 small businesses have benefited from the program and created 340 jobs with just $650,000 of investment.

  • Implementation: The program will be implemented by the City of Evanston’s economic development department as a grants program.  Economic development director Mr. Z (z@evanston.org) has expressed willingness to implement this proposal if funded.  The City Office of Economic Development will recruit 10 businesses who lack access to traditional capital with the greatest need and at risk of closing, provide them the loan, then track the businesses over a 2 year period with current staff handling regular repayments. At the end of the trial, the City will report the number of businesses that remained open and the jobs created over time.

  • Equity & ARPA eligibility: This aligns with ARPA's eligibility criteria of loans to mitigate financial hardship faced by small businesses, and specifically will serve low-income communities. 

  • Community research: We interviewed 3 business owners on the Main-Dempster mile about post COVID business needs: Ms. O’Connor <oconnor@gmail.com>, Mr. Roberts <roberts@gmai.com> and Mr. Thomas <thomas@mdk.com>. Many mentioned issues such as back rent, difficulty finding employees and increased costs of inventory.  All 3 owners thought that a micro-loan program would be helpful, and the Main-Dempster Kilometer was willing to co-sponsor the proposal. They increasing the maximum size of the loan to $10K (selected in current proposal).

  • Budget

    • loans: $100,000

    • administration: $5000

    • advertising: $1000

  • Questions & Challenges

    • We need help finding more examples of much micro-loan programs costs and benefits from other cities.

  • References

    • <links and references cited>

Writing the Proposal 

STEP 1: Identifying a need 

The first step in developing your proposal is to identify a need.  For example, a need might be "access to affordable housing” or “seniors have difficulty shoveling snow on the sidewalks”.   

Identify need - You can identify needs from many sources: 

Verify need - As part of your research, you should also provide some evidence that this need exists in Evanston.  This is important to make sure that the proposal will have an impact in Evanston and to prevent situations where one group of people incorrectly decides what another group’s needs are.  You can show evidence of the need by: 

  • Talk with people who have the need to verify the need 

  • Ask people who have that need if would be willing to co-sponsor 

  • Referencing reports or local data such as the Evanston EPLAN 

You might find that you are starting with an idea for a solution—if that’s the case, try to reverse engineer the need: what need is this solution addressing? and then think about the evidence for that need. 

Add 1-2 sentences about the need, 1-2 sentences about your evidence, and any co-sponsors to the proposal template.  If you don’t have evidence for the need yet, add a question or to-do item at the end about how to find evidence for the need. 

STEP 2: Research existing solutions 

The second step in developing your proposal is to identify existing solutions. For example, if you want to help seniors with snow shoveling, then you might find that “the city of Greater Sudbury spends $1m to plow 350km of sidewalks using municipal tractors.” 

There are many ways to address a particular need, so before proposing a solution, find out how people have already tried to address that need, both in Evanston and in other cities.  This will ensure that your proposal isn’t reinventing the wheel and that the proposal will be the most impactful approach.  Finding existing solutions from other cities that you want to implement here will also show that your proposal is feasible and help you estimate costs. 

To search for existing solutions, consider: 

  • Your own knowledge  

  • Talking with other community members 

  • Services currently available in the area, e.g., https://evanstoncarenetwork.org/ 

  • Searching city website for existing programs 

  • Solutions described in ARPA and Advancing Equity through ARPA  - see Research Resources for more

  • Talking with community organizations 

  • Searching other city websites & news 

  • Searching newspaper articles 

  • Research reports & policy briefs 

Add 1-2 sentences about existing solutions to your proposal template.   

  • If the solution is from another city but not implemented here, describe it as evidence of feasibility. 

  • If the solution is one from Evanston that you will build on or expand, describe it and why it should be expanded. 

STEP 3: Choose solution 

Now that you’ve identified a need and existing solutions, describe your solution and how it addresses the need.  You may want to sketch out a causal model / logic model / theory of change to make sure that the solution will lead to the outcome. 

Add 1-2 sentences describing your solution. 

Add 1-2 sentences describing how this solution will address the need. 

STEP 4: Beneficiaries & Outcomes 

Now that you have a need and an idea of what’s possible, identify the specific population your proposal will benefit.  Identifying the specific beneficiaries will help define the scope of the proposal, who you need to talk to to assess support, and estimate costs, help determine feasibility, and help determine ARPA eligibility.   

For example, if you have a proposal to increase access to affordable housing, will it be available to all Evanstonians, or only Evanstonians with annual incomes below $40K?  The latter has a smaller, more feasible scope and defines who specifically can participate in the program.   

Add 1-2 sentences to your proposal about who are the beneficiaries of the program. 

STEP 5: Equity & ARPA eligibility 

Now that you have a beneficiary, need, & solution, you can determine whether this project is ARPA eligible, or if it needs to be slightly modified.  In general, if the project is something that government does to addresses equity or helps Evanston recover from pandemic, it should be eligible under ARPA.  Also, if you have trouble figuring out ARPA eligibility, remember you can ask PB staff for help. 

To assess ARPA eligibility, first look at the ARPA flowchart of pre-approved uses to see whether your beneficiary and solution is already identified as eligible.  

If your proposal doesn’t fit under any of the pre-approved uses, use the APRA flowchart for new projects to explain how your beneficiary and projects are eligible. 

If you can’t determine how your project fits, ask the PB staff to help! 

Add 1-2 sentences to your proposal about why this proposal will increase equity / be ARPA eligible. 

STEP 6: Budget, Feasibility & Sustainability 

Now that you have the main elements of the proposal, check to see whether this program is feasible & sustainable.  For the PB proposals, feasibility means that the program can be implemented and achieve its goals for the given cost.  For example, “build a new school” would not be a feasible proposal for PB because it would cost more than the entire PB budget. 

One good way to determine budget and feasibility is to look to existing solutions.  For example, if the proposal is “build a bike lane”, you can search online to find out how much it costs to build a mile of bike lane, and estimate the cost for your proposal.  Finding existing examples also shows that the project can be implemented. 

You should also consider sustainability.  ARPA funding only lasts a few years, so if you propose a program that will require a decade to achieve its goals, or run indefinitely, it will run out of ARPA funding.  Some ways to address sustainability are to adjust the program goals to fit a shorter timeline. Proposing a pilot program that produces evidence need to make a decision about future programs might also be a way to address sustainability. Programs that increase community capacity are another way to increase sustainability. 

Add 1-2 sentences about the feasibility of your program.  Include evidence and references to other programs or research. 

Add 1-2 sentences about sustainability that address: 

  • How will the proposal achieve its outcomes in the time allotted? 

  • Whether this proposal requires funding past ARPA end date? 

  • Does the project increase community capacity? 

STEP 7: Implementation 

Now that you’ve got an impactful, feasible proposal, decide how it will be administered, for example will it be implemented by city staff or will the city hire some other organization? 

Add 1-2 sentences about the implementation approach, will this be: 

  • a capital expense that city implements? 

  • an expansion of an existing city program? 

  • a new program implemented by the city? 

  • an RFP or grant for community partner to implement? 

Add 1-2 sentences about who will implement the program... 

  • If the city implements the program, identify which department. 

  • If someone else will implement the program, 

  • specify that this is a request for proposals (RFP)  

  • list organizations might apply 

  • contact the organizations to make sure they would co-sponsor this proposal or would potentially apply to the RFP 

STEP 8: Questions 

When developing your proposal you will run into questions that you can’t immediately answer. Add those questions to the proposal, then think about how you can answer that question, such as by searching for more information, talking to people in your issue committee, talking to city staff, or talking to community members.  

Add any unresolved questions to your proposal (and make a plan for how to answer these question). 

Getting feedback on the proposal 

Your proposal will go through multiple rounds of feedback before it goes onto the ballot.  The earlier and often you get feedback, the more impactful your proposal will be. 

There are several ways you should plan to get feedback:

Feedback from self & peers 

Before sharing your proposal outside your issue committee, use the proposal vetting checklist to double check that your proposal is ready to share. Don’t forget to share your proposal with the other members of your issue committee to get a second opinion 

Feedback from staff 

Getting feedback from staff is critical to make sure you have an impactful & feasible proposal. Staff don't decide which projects will be selected, but they do need to be sure that the project can be implemented if wins the vote. Staff also have a great deal of knowledge about existing needs, solutions and current programs, so their feedback will be very helpful in coming up with a good proposal.  

You will submit your proposal to the PB staff and then to the city staff for 4 rounds of vetting. To get the best feedback possible, make sure to develop the proposal as much as possible before submitting and to double check the proposal vetting checklist before submitting. The better you make the proposal, the better the feedback you’ll receive. 

Community Research

Once you have a full proposal that has been pre-vetted, it’s time to get feedback from beneficiaries.

Getting feedback from beneficiaries and/or their representatives is crucial to developing an impactful proposal, especially if you are proposing something intended to benefit a group you aren’t a member of.  The intended beneficiaries of a proposal will have information about their needs. 

To assess support for the proposal from beneficiaries: 

  • Talk with beneficiaries to see if this would work and they would want it 

  • Ask beneficiaries if they would co-sponsor this solution – record their name, contact and reason for co-sponsoring 

Finding interviewees

The easiest way to find beneficiaries is to start with your personal network — who do you know that is affected by the issue, or who might know people affected by the issue?

You can also approach people at organizations and events related to the issue, for example connect with an environmental group or earth day event to find people that are interested in environmental issues.

You can also find interviewees by participating in a pbevanston.org or city PB outreach event.

Contacting interviewees

Send an introductory email or message explaining:

  • who referred you to this person

  • the reason for the call/meeting and how this will lead to PB proposals that will benefit your interviewee

  • that your referral said that they had a lot of knowledge or expertise about this issue and you want to get their feedback

  • that you only need a short amount of time, maybe 15 minutes (people will typically give you more)

  • that your goal is to understand the problems they see related to the issue

  • (if you’d like) an invitation to a friendlier meeting place, offer to buy them a cup of coffee

Interview

You can use the following agenda for your interview:

  • Introduction

    • Introduce yourself.

    • Explain how you got their name.

    • Explain that hat you are developing proposals for Participatory budgeting.

    • Explain that you are meeting with them to get their thoughts about what proposals you should submit.

    • Explain PB if necessary.

  • Breaking the ice - start with easy questions like how long they’ve lived in Evanston, what they like about living in Evanston, etc.

  • Understand their experience with issue (e.g., housing, environment, etc.)

    • Explain that you want to ask them about the issue.

    • Tell that that first want to tell them a little bit about yourself — and give a (brief!) explanation about some key event that influenced your attitudes about the issue.

    • Ask them what their experience with this issue in Evanston.

  • Test your understanding of the problem

    • Explain what you think the most important problems are by sharing the needs from your proposals, then ask them to rank how important these needs are to them.

    • Ask them what the biggest problems in this issue are for them.

  • Discover existing solutions

    • Ask them how they currently solve this issue today.

    • Ask them, if they could wave a magic want and change anything, what would it be?

  • Test your solution

    • Share your solutions (proposals) and see how they react — do they understand it? are they excited about it?

    • Ask them how this solution do compared with other solutions?

  • Ask for support

    • Ask them if they would support this proposal as a co-sponsor

    • If not, what would have to change for them to support it?

    • Ask if they have any suggestions to improve the proposal, what would they change and why?

  • Wrap-up

    • What should I have asked?

    • Who else should I talk to?

    • Thank them for their time

    • Sign them up for participatory budgeting if they haven’t signed up already

Update your proposal

Once you’ve you’ve finished your interview, update your proposal with:

  • Name/email of beneficiaries or representatives you talked to.

  • Description of who the interviewees are (in relation to the proposal).

  • Aspects of the proposal that your interviewees agreed/disagreed with.

  • Aspects of the proposal you were changed in response to interviewees.

  • Did the interviewees support the proposal.

Feedback from community members 

Your program won’t be implemented if people don’t vote for it, so it’s important to assess whether the proposal has support from the broader community. 

To assess support for the proposal from the broader community, we’ll post proposals online after vetting 1 and take a poll about which proposals people like the best!