On December 10th, Mayor Marilyn Strickland announced that Tacoma has been selected to participate in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ “What Work Cities” – one of the largest-ever philanthropic efforts to enhance the use of data and evidence in the public sector. Launched in April 2015, the $42 million initiative is already providing support to city halls in eight cities and will admit up to 100 cities on a rolling basis through 2017.

“The strategic use of technology and data will help us improve services to the residents of Tacoma and measure goals set by the community for Tacoma 2025,” said Mayor Marilyn Strickland. “From economic development to human services and transportation, we have the opportunity to develop and implement more effective policies.”

“Cities around the country are looking to use data more effectively, and the new What Works cities range from Alaska to the East Coast. They understand that data is a tool that every city can use to improve public services, and our What Works Cities initiative will help them do just that,” said Michael R. Bloomberg.

Tacoma joins twelve other new cities in publicly committing to enhance their use of data and evidence to improve services, inform local decision making and engage residents.  Along with the mayors of Anchorage, Alaska; Bellevue, Washington; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Denton, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Independence, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lexington, Kentucky; Saint Paul, Minnesota; San Jose, California; San Francisco, California; and Waco, Texas, the City of Tacoma will receive support from world class experts to address local issues including using data to evaluate city services and sharing data proactively to improve transparency, community engagement, and problem solving.

What Works Cities collaborates with participating municipalities to review their current use of data and evidence, understand where they are utilizing best practices and identify areas for growth. Through its expert partners, What Works Cities will help Tacoma through customized approaches that will expand the use of data and evidence by focusing on the following two areas:

• Performance Management: The City of Tacoma will build upon its award-winning performance management system to develop a citywide framework that aligns its 10-year strategic priorities in Tacoma 2025 and performance reporting to foster a consistent and sustainable culture of excellence. The Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University is working with the City in this area.
• Open Data: The City of Tacoma will develop open data policies and procedures to improve its ability to respond to data requests from residents, departments and non-governmental organizations, to deepen trust between the City and the community while improving the use of data. The Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University and the Sunlight Foundation have been working with the City in this area.

The consortium of leading organizations that has been assembled by Bloomberg Philanthropies to provide a program of support includes Results for America; the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University; the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School;  Sunlight Foundation; and The Behavioral Insights Team.

With the addition of the new cities to the program, What Works Cities is now working in 21 cities in 15 states. Fully one-third of the 21 cities state they are “just starting out” using data and evidence. The selected What Works Cities represent over 8 million Americans, with annual budgets exceeding a combined $31 billion. Ten of the 21 mayors are in their first term in office; and four of the 21 mayors are women.  The cities’ major industries include education, high-technology, oil refining, finance, manufacturing, health care and tourism.

Bloomberg Philanthropies named the first eight cities in August 2015.  Since then, these cities have made substantial progress by passing open data policies, launching performance management programs, and undertaking new efforts to evaluate programs and manage contracts more effectively.

To receive updates on the What Works Cities initiative, please visit whatworkscities.org.