Albuquerque, New Mexico, focuses its budget and services on achieving citizen-tested goals and measurable "desired community conditions," so the results they manage for are outcomes people care about. Using a performance management system that aligns department resources, program strategies, and service performance measures with the desired conditions, city officials not only get performance feedback for improving services, they also learn whether city and community efforts are "moving the needle" on improving the quality of life.

Krivosheino, a rural, economically challenged community in central Siberia, set out on the path of governance reform with Effective Community Governance (ECG) as its model. After two years of a pilot ECG program, Krivosheino has improved governance through several stages of advancement in citizen engagement and a newfound resolve by both town and county leaders to deliver on citizen priorities. Township mayor Nikolai Lipukhin's outlook on leadership was transformed, and he credited his re-election at a difficult time to his new dedication to empowering citizens.

Citizen-empowering governance reforms in Siberian communities led the Mott Foundation to extend an Effective Community Governance (ECG) pilot program through 2010. The Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Center and Epstein & Fass Associates provided ECG training and on-site support to help communities engage citizens in governance, aim improvement efforts at citizens' quality-of-life priorities, and comply with a new law that mandates increased local government autonomy and citizen participation. Phase II goals in Siberia include bringing ECG reforms to more communities and helping communities make local improvement initiatives more strategic.

By request, we created downloadable one-sheets to help you summarize the model and key ECG themes for North American and international development audiences. For more information, see the ECG home page.

In two free, archived webinars (also available below as PowerPoint slideshows), Results That Matter authors Paul Epstein and Lyle Wray outline the "Community Balanced Scorecard," which unites the strategy-alignment power of the balanced scorecard with the citizen-driven, results-based power of Effective Community Governance (ECG) for stronger, more strategic ways to improve communities.

The webinars and slides feature a framework for a Community Balanced Scorecard with perspectives derived from the ECG Model, and samples strategy maps and indicators based on strategies of successful community development and improvement collaborations in the U.S. and abroad.

The Community Balanced Scorecard webinars are archived at the Strategy Aligned Management-Local Government website and run 45-60 minutes. Free registration and login to the site is required. To access webinars, click on the "Resources" link that will appear at the top of the page after you login. No time to sit through the full webinars? You can view the slide presentations, without voice, here:

Community Balanced Scorecards (Part 1)

Community Balanced Scorecards (Part 2)