The City of Austin has been recognized with the Excellence in Data-Driven Engagement Award for its innovative approach to using data to inform public decision-making. This case study highlights how Austin leveraged PublicInput to streamline community engagement, strengthen collaboration, and ensure resident feedback shapes city decisions.
Community Profile
The City of Austin, Texas, is a rapidly growing metropolitan area with a diverse population of nearly 1 million residents.
As a hub of technology, government, and culture, Austin faces the challenge of ensuring equitable and effective community engagement amid its growth.
With 93% of households having broadband internet access, Austin boasts a highly connected, tech-savvy population, making it uniquely positioned to embrace digital engagement strategies.
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Households with Broadband Internet Subscriptions
The Opportunity: Unifying Community Engagement Data for Smarter Decision-Making
Austin’s commitment to data-driven decision-making created an opportunity to improve how the city tracks and utilizes community engagement insights. Historically, different departments conducted outreach and gathered feedback independently, making it difficult to measure overall impact and align community priorities with citywide decisions.
With Austin undergoing significant website and technology transitions, the city needed a way to:
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- Centralize engagement data for better transparency and reporting.
- Create consistent data collection methods across departments to guide budget choices
- Monitor how well digital participation tools were working to justify their continued use
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How PublicInput Was Used
To improve community engagement and strengthen data-driven decision-making, the City of Austin partnered with PublicInput to develop a centralized engagement dashboard. This platform enabled the city to:
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- Gather All Feedback in One Place: Collected insights from 91,000+ participants, including 1.1 million survey responses and 116,000 public comments across departments
- Reach More Residents: Grew their contact list by 352,000+ new residents and connected through 1.25 million+ emails
- Make Participation Easier and More Transparent: Standardized data collection methods and tracked nearly 4,000 public meeting attendees to ensuring everyone could participate
- Help Departments Work Better Together: Gave 42 departments instant access to engagement data, helping them coordinate their community outreach and decision making
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The Results: More Efficient, Transparent, and Impactful Community Engagement
By partnering with PublicInput, Austin’s Community Engagement team has strengthened its approach to gathering and using public feedback. They’ve streamlined reporting and adopted a more strategic, citywide approach to public participation—ensuring resident input can meaningfully influence city priorities.
Here’s what they achieved:
- Citywide Impact: Engaged nearly 400,000 residents through 118 project groups and 700+ initiatives in just over a year.
- Smarter Decision-Making: Combined feedback now directly shapes budget priorities and helps align policies with what the community needs
- Better Teamwork Across Departments: 42 departments now work from a unified strategy to coordinate outreach and share insights.
- Increased Transparency & Accountability: Detailed tracking of how residents participate helps keep city government open and transparent.
- Proven Value of Digital Tools: Clear data shows the real benefits of using technology for public participation
Austin’s approach has set a new standard for how cities can use data to engage with their communities openly and effectively. Their story shows that numbers do more than measure success—they help tell the story of how a city and its people work together.
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Discover how PublicInput simplifies community engagement for state and local governments. From outreach to analytics, our all-in-one platform helps you connect with residents effortlessly.
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