The new cycle of The People’s Money has officially launched, and we’re now accepting ideas for how to spend part of the New York City budget. The deadline to submit is November 18, 2026. Before you submit, check that your idea meets these guidelines:

Idea Submission Guidelines

To be eligible, your idea:

✅ Must be a program or service that can occur in the existing built environment. Your idea cannot build anything new or make repairs to existing infrastructure.
✅ Must not propose to change the law, change the way an agency works, or add to city staff numbers. For example, we cannot hire more teachers for the Dept. of Education or more police officers for the NYPD.
✅ Must have a meaningful impact on people’s lives across your borough. Do not propose an idea for just one school — think of an idea that would work at multiple schools across your borough.
✅ Must be respectful of the diversity of all New Yorkers. The People’s Money does not accept ideas containing hate speech or discriminatory language.

To get a better idea of what kinds of projects The People’s Money has paid for in the past, check out the winning ideas from last cycle here!