Polys

Participatory Budgeting Platform

Polys. Participatory budgeting is a digital tool used by local governments and other organizations to engage the public in decision-making.

Request a demo

Benefits of citizen engagement

Growth of civic activity

Participatory budgeting is a powerful tool for civic education. Involving citizens in solving local issues gives them a sense of importance, allows them to participate in the implementation of local initiatives and encourages other kinds of assistance on a voluntary basis.

Improving relations between citizens and local authorities

The opportunity for citizens to participate in decision-making and influence the development of their communities leads to active cooperation with local authorities, the building of good neighborly relations and increases trust.

Fair and transparent expenses

When residents decide how to spend money, public funding is more responsive to the needs of residents. Citizen-approved projects are financed more efficiently and facilities are managed more carefully thanks to public scrutiny.

Participatory budgeting in schools

Educational institutions also use participatory budgeting to involve students, parents, teachers and administrators in the selection process when funding initiatives from the school budget or other sources.

PB in schools gives students a positive experience of civic engagement and strengthens the school community by building positive relationships between students and the school administration.

What do we offer?

Intuitive interface

The platform is easy to use and does not require programming skills. You can set up a proactive budgeting campaign in just a few clicks, and residents can vote for projects online from anywhere.

Customization

Our solution is fully adaptable to the needs of our customers. If you need to notify residents via text message, a chat feature with technical support, or something else, we're ready to discuss your wishes.

Convenient identification of voters

To vote for projects, residents are identified using their mobile phone number. This simple method of authentication makes it possible to attract a larger audience to PB projects.

Data export and reporting

All necessary information is collected for reporting purposes. This data can be analyzed to make informed decisions and improve your policies.

Secure solution

The platform was developed by Kaspersky, the world leader in cybersecurity, and draws on many years of expertise as well as the latest technology.

Training and support

We created this tool with the participation of experts in the field of PB, taking into account international practices. We're ready to share our expertise with customers and provide them with comprehensive support.

Make decisions that meet the needs of the entire community

Involving different community cohorts in the PB process helps ensure your decisions reflect the priorities of the entire community. Find out how our platform can help you attract a representative sample of hundreds or thousands of residents.

Get a free consultation

Stages of participatory budgeting

Implement the projects your citizens need in just four steps.

Step 1.

Generation of ideas

Anyone can offer an idea to improve their city or district.

Step 2.

Selection and approval of proposals

Thanks to the collaboration between residents and local authorities, ideas are turned into proposals, and city experts estimate their costs.

Step 3.

Voting

All residents can vote for their favorite projects.

Step 4.

Implementation

The city implements the projects that receive the most votes.

What our clients say

"Previously, when discussing PB projects, we held general meetings in the administration building, but no more than 200 people came to them. Then we decided to conduct an online vote for local initiatives on the Polys platform, and 185,000 residents took part. It meant we were able to consider the opinion of the entire community."
Dmitry Zavyalov
Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Volgograd region (Russia)

Test our online voting system for free

With Polys, you can organize a vote of up to 20 voters at no cost.

Get started

Frequently Asked Questions

All data for participatory budgeting projects, with the exception of files, is stored in the blockchain network database. Supporting documentation for projects is stored separately, and only the hashes of the corresponding files are recorded in the blockchain. Users' personal data does not enter the blockchain and is stored in service layer's data storage (PostgreSQL).

The system only stores the personal data required for user authentication: phone number, email address or ID from external identity provider (for example, Facebook), depending on how the user logs in to the system. The data is stored in the service layer's data storage, which is only accessible to the services that need this data to operate.

The system consists of three components: blockchain network, service layer and user interface.

To deploy a blockchain network, at least four servers are required with the following minimum configuration:

Network – 1Mbytes capacity (latency of no more than 20ms between servers);
CPU – dual-core 3GHz;
RAM – 8GB;
SSD – 100GB

To deploy the service layer, at least one server is required (preferably more for fault tolerance and load balancing) with the following minimum configuration:

CPU – dual-core 3GHz;
RAM – 16GB;
HDD/SSD – 200GB

The user interface is designed as a web application delivered in the form of static files. Any CDN or hosting with Nginx installed with sufficient capacity in terms of the number of simultaneous connections (depending on the expected load on the PB portal) is suitable for delivering the application to the user's browser.