This workshop—and resources like it—are made possible by over 6,000 Strong Towns members.
Their support helps bring practical, powerful content to city leaders, advocates, and everyday residents across North America who are working to build stronger, more financially resilient places.

If you’re not yet a member, we invite you to join today.
Together, we can reach even more people with tools that change the conversation—and the future—of our communities.
👉 Become a Strong Towns Member

Thank you for joining us for the Financial Decoder Workshop—or for finding your way here to catch the replay! This page is your home base for the full recording, downloadable resources, and additional materials to help you dive deeper into the world of nonprofit and municipal finance.

During the live workshop, we were joined by three incredible presenters who each brought a unique and practical perspective to understanding financial systems:

Chuck Marohn – Founder and President, Strong Towns

Chuck opened the workshop by laying out why financial transparency, math literacy, and critical thinking are essential for building stronger, more resilient places. His overview set the stage for why decoding financial information isn’t just a technical skill—it’s foundational to the Strong Towns movement.

Linda Twillman – Controller, Strong Towns

Linda provided an in-depth look at the nonprofit side of finance, guiding participants through the tools and methods she’s refined over her extensive career. Her session focused on understanding income statements, interpreting reports like Changes in Net Position, and making sure critical expenses—like interest charges—are correctly identified and analyzed.
🎧 Explore more: Your City's Accounting Is Unnecessarily Obscure — It's Time to Pull Back the Veil

Michel Durand-Wood – Author, DearWinnipeg.com

Michel brought a citizen-centered lens to the conversation, showing how municipal budgets and financial reports often obscure more than they reveal. With humor and clear examples, he demonstrated how to spot gaps, ask better questions, and make municipal math fun—and powerful—for everyday people.
🎧 Explore more: From Boring to Brilliant: Making Municipal Finance Fun with Michel Durand-Wood

Visit the Transparent Local Accounting Campaign Page

Learn more, get involved, and explore all our resources here:
👉 Visit the Full Campaign Page

The remainder of this page is a deep dive into the Financial Decoder Workshop and related resources.
Here, you’ll find the replay, downloadable tools, and additional learning materials featuring our presenters—designed to help you better understand nonprofit and municipal finance and apply Strong Towns principles in your own community.

Take your time exploring—and if you believe in this work, please join Strong Towns today. Every new member helps grow this movement and expands access to critical tools like this one.
👉 Become a Strong Towns Member

Deep Dive: Tools, Stories, and Strategies for Financially Strong Communities

Understanding local finances isn’t optional anymore—it’s essential. Cities across North America are struggling under mounting debt, unsustainable growth patterns, and outdated financial practices. But there’s a better way forward: doing the math, demanding transparency, and building financially resilient places, one smart decision at a time.

This collection brings together some of the best thinking, tools, and stories from Strong Towns and our allies. Whether you're a city leader, an engaged citizen, or just getting started, these resources will equip you to see the real financial picture of your place—and take action.

Featured Content:

• Why Cities like Kansas City are Heading Toward Financial Trouble - Introducing the Strong Towns Finance Decoder
  
  

• 📽 It’s Time to Rethink How We Measure Cities. We Can’t Afford Not To.
  A firsthand look at Urban3’s Value Per Acre work in Asheville, NC, showing how cities can uncover hidden wealth—and hidden liabilities—by looking at land use differently.

• 🖼 The Real Reason Your City Has No Money
  A foundational Strong Towns essay (and graphic) that explains why so many cities appear wealthy, but are actually broke.

• 📚 You're Ready to #DoTheMath in Your Own Town. These 6 Resources Will Help.
  A curated toolkit for those ready to dig into their city's finances and uncover the true return on public investments.

• 🏛 The Foolproof City
  One of Strong Towns' classic essays explaining why time-tested, humble development patterns are a rational response to complexity.

• 📉 The More We Grow, the Poorer We Become
  A hard-hitting explanation of why growth alone doesn’t guarantee prosperity—and why ignoring financial reality has consequences.

• 🕵️ 4 Ways a City Can Hide Its Insolvency Using Accounting
  Learn the warning signs that a city may be masking financial trouble behind accounting tricks.

• 🎧 From Boring to Brilliant: Making Municipal Finance Fun With Michel Durand-Wood
  Listen to the podcast and hear how one citizen makes city budgets approachable, powerful, and even fun.

• 🛠 Value Per Acre Analysis: A How-To For Beginners
  A step-by-step guide to conducting your own local "value per acre" investigation—and seeing your city with new eyes.

• ⚾ Playing 'Moneyball' with Your City
  A Strong Towns member draws surprising lessons from baseball statistics about smarter financial management for towns.

• 🏙 This Isn’t an Annexation. It’s a Bailout.
  A real-world example of how cities often overextend themselves through annexation without fully understanding the cost.

• 💸 Why Cities are Flying Blind When It Comes to Their Own Debt
  An exposé on the hidden risks cities face when they don't fully grapple with the debt embedded in their budgets.

• 📄 Rethinking Property Taxes
  A report exploring how to rehabilitate and improve the property tax system to make it fairer, more transparent, and more stable for everyone.

• 🎧 Your City's Accounting Is Unnecessarily Obscure — It's Time to Pull Back the Veil
  Listen to the podcast where Linda Twillman of Strong Towns explains why nonprofit and public sector accounting needs to be made more transparent—and how to do it.

Ready to Dive In?

Each article, essay, video, and tool here is designed to help you rethink how your city measures success, spot financial danger before it’s too late, and advocate for a better, stronger future.

Let’s #DoTheMath together.

👉 Return to the Main Transparent Local Accounting Campaign