Abstract
This opportunity brief explores two cases of hyper-local democratic resource allocation that enabled historically marginalized members of defined communities to make decisions about how money gets spent. Both processes allocated funds to address mental health and substance abuse in local communities. First, we describe a participatory budgeting process in St. Louis overseen by the local government. Next, we describe a participatory grant making process accomplished by a community foundation in New York City. These cases complement other research demonstrating that intentionally power-shifting and less hierarchical democratic forms of funding are feasible and result in well informed, responsive allocations of money