What Works Cities from Bloomberg Philantropies helps local governments improve residents' lives by using data and evidence effectively to tackle pressing challenges.

What Works Cities Certification is the national standard of excellence for well-managed, data-driven local government.

Certification helps cities benchmark their progress and develop a roadmap for using data and evidence to deliver results for residents. By recognizing local governments excelling in this work, the program provides models others can learn from.

Louisville Gold Certification

Louisville is a Bloomberg What Works Cities certified Gold city in 2019. 1,400 US cities are eligible, with nearly 90 submitting assessments, and only 4 cities achieving Gold.

Certification requires the coordination and leadership of the city's Office of Performance Improvement and Innovation and the Office of Management and Budget, and the work involves the efforts of all city departments. The city's Data Governance team has been essential in our city’s overall efforts, earning 100% in both the Data Governance, Open Data, and Stakeholder Engagement categories.

In 2017, Louisville was one of 8 cities certified at the Silver level, and worked to achieve Gold during the second WWC certification.

About WWC

Certified cities are better equipped to deliver the most effective services and programs that improve quality of life for residents. They’re using data-driven governance to increase resident satisfaction, engage communities in improving their neighborhoods, reduce carbon emissions, revitalize aging infrastructure, protect renters’ rights, move more people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing, and much more.

Cities that complete a What Works Cities Assessment have their practices benchmarked against Certification’s national standard, receive next steps to improve, and become eligible for a wide range of support from What Works Cities, from access to the initiative’s learning network to the receipt of targeted technical assistance from What Works Cities partners

Certification sets a standard of excellence through criteria that outline the people, processes, and policies that are foundational to a well-managed city. View the Certification criteria (PDF version)

A team from Results for America, along with experts on the Certification Standard Committee, conducts an assessment in which local governments earn a point for each criterion they satisfy. If the total number of points earned is high enough, a local government can achieve one of three tiers of Certification: silver, gold, or platinum. All local governments that undergo the assessment better understand their strengths and weaknesses and receive support to drive stronger outcomes for their community. View the assessment methodology.