The 21st Century Challenge: Delivering More with Less.

State and local governments in the United States face immense challenges in the 21st century. Revenues from sales, property, and income taxes are set to decline dramatically as the baby boomer generation enters retirement. This same trend demands that governments create more and increasingly complex public goods with markedly fewer resources.

For America’s cities, the challenges are particularly acute, as they face unprecedented budget deficits and the impending explosion of unfunded pension liabilities. At the same time, cities must repair crumbling infrastructure, fix troubled schools, and ensure public safety so that they remain a promising pathway to the middle class.

Project on Municipal Innovation

In response, the Project on Municipal Innovation was developed to create a peer-learning network of urban policy directors, to identify and promote best practices, and to support the implementation of innovative ideas in cities across the country. PMI was established with support from Living Cities, a collaborative of 22 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions.

Urban Policy Advisory Group

Central to the Project on Municipal Innovation is the Urban Policy Advisory Group, a groundbreaking forum of 30 of America’s largest and most creative cities and urban counties. The Urban Policy Advisory Group provides its members with regular access to leading policy experts; ongoing collaborative discussions to speed the adaptation and replication of innovative ideas; and, a means to identify and solve critical questions related to pragmatic policy deployment. UPAG is convened by Professor Stephen Goldsmith, a former two-term mayor of Indianapolis and a highly regarded expert in urban innovation, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Technical Assistance

The Project on Municipal Innovation engages public policy experts to provide in-depth, on-site consultation to UPAG member cities. This technical assistance closes the gap between research and practice by developing customized applications of tested solutions and reforming public service delivery systems. PMI’s technical assistance program promotes the adoption of innovative public management strategies with an emphasis on forming new partnerships between the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.

Technical assistance is a critical component of the Project on Municipal Innovation’s mission to facilitate the development and broad diffusion of innovative ideas in urban areas. PMI carefully examines its technical assistance efforts to identify sources of success and barriers to implementation. These critical lessons are disseminated through the project’s website, which also includes “state-of-the-field” reports and implementation blueprints. PMI provides a central online destination for anyone interested in urban innovation.