Why Certify
With strong data foundations, cities act faster on urgent challenges like housing, climate, public health and safety, making every decision and dollar count for residents.
What Works Cities Certification provides your city with a benchmark of your current data practices, a roadmap to improvement and support to help you get there. More than a one-time achievement, achieving What Works Cities Certification is a framework for building a long-term data culture in city halls — helping cities track progress, scale what works and deliver lasting impact for residents.
A path to improvement
By taking the Certification Assessment, you’ll get a comprehensive analysis of your city’s data strengths and areas for improvement.
Free resources
Gain access to resources and learning opportunities that help accelerate data progress.
Access to community
A one-of-a-kind space to celebrate, troubleshoot and innovate with peers in other cities
How Certification Works
The first step toward achieving Certification is completing the Data Snapshot, a short questionnaire that provides cities with an initial benchmark of their data practices. Cities that take the Data Snapshot receive customized next steps to improve their data practices and continue on the Certification journey. After the Data Snapshot, eligible cities will take the full What Works Cities Certification Assessment to achieve Certification, which is awarded at the Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.
Silver
Local governments are good at understanding data, tracking progress, and using data and evidence to make decisions. Cities that achieve between 51% and 67% of the Certification criteria are recognized at the Silver level.
51% - 67% (≥22 criteria)
Gold
Local governments are great at understanding data, tracking progress, and using data and evidence to make decisions. Cities that achieve between 68% and 84% of the Certification criteria are recognized at the Gold level.
68% - 84% (≥29 criteria)
Platinum
Local governments set the precedent in understanding data, tracking progress, and using data and evidence to make decisions. Cities that achieve 85% or more of the Certification criteria are recognized at the Platinum level.
+85% (≥37 criteria)