The City of Boulder has achieved a Gold Certification from Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification for establishing exceptional data capabilities to inform policy, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate programs, and engage community members.

The What Works Cities Certification standard reflects the practices, policies, and infrastructure municipalities must have in place to effectively harness data for better decision-making.

Bloomberg Philanthropies recognized Boulder’s utilization of data and evidence to better understand challenges, implement solutions and deliver improved outcomes for the community. Some examples of Boulder’s use of data that helped the city achieve certification include:

  • Launched the citywide budgeting for resiliency and equity program, refocusing city spending on outcomes.
  • Built data tools to allow analysis of data disaggregated by geographic and demographic groups to inform decision-making on key citywide priorities, including the development of a citywide equity index.
  • Expanded its open data program to feature more than 100 datasets, improving transparency and accountability.
  • Deployed internally-developed machine learning tools to identify optimal locations for new fire stations and to identify city buildings that could most benefit from energy-saving measures.
  • Centered evaluation in operational decision-making, using data to refine the city’s flagship CIRT program, to isolate hotspots of catalytic converter theft and to identify 1,456 city blocks in need of pro-active investigation for parking permits.

“I am incredibly proud of the positive impact our work is having on the community we serve,” said City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde. “We will continue to embrace data-driven decision-making to ensure a future where every community member can thrive, and every resource is utilized to build a stronger, more sustainable tomorrow.”

“At a time when people are questioning the role of government, and what good government looks like, governments must be better at using data to know what is and isn’t working – and that is what the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification stands for,” said Rochelle Haynes, Managing Director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification. “Over one hundred cities are now showing what is possible by investing the time, energy, and political capital to shift the culture of how local government works.”

“The Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification is one of the largest-ever philanthropic efforts to improve how local governments use data to improve people’s lives,” said James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “This work is helping reform-minded mayors across the Americas bring their organizations into the 21st century. Whether to stem housing shortages, reduce traffic fatalities, or improve resident service and responsiveness, these city halls are tapping data, digital, and artificial intelligence to rise to the challenge – and we are thrilled to support their progress.”

Representing a growing movement of local governments across the Americas investing in data and evidence, the 21 new Certified What Works Cities are: Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, and Winnipeg from Canada; Burlington, Vermont; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Newark, New Jersey; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Raleigh, North Carolina; Reno, Nevada; and Savannah, Georgia from the U.S.; Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Caruaru, from Brazil; Corrientes, San Nicolás, and Vicente López from Argentina; and Maipú and San Fernando from Chile.

Four currently Certified cities – Boulder, Colorado; Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Rochester, New York moved up to Gold Certification. In addition, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Little Rock, Arkansas; Norfolk, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; South Bend, Indiana; and Tulsa, Oklahoma re-Certified under the more rigorous criteria introduced in 2022.

The What Works Cities Certification program, launched in 2017 by Bloomberg Philanthropies and led by Results for America, is the international standard of data excellence in city governance. The program is open to any city in North, Central, or South America with a population of 30,000 or more.

To learn more about the What Works Cities Certification, visit whatworkscities.org.

About the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification:

The What Works Cities Certification program, launched in 2017 by Bloomberg Philanthropies and led by Results for America, is the first-of-its-kind standard of excellence for data-informed, well-managed local government. What Works Cities Certification recognizes and celebrates local governments for their exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate the effectiveness of programs, and engage residents.