The City of Alexandria received a 2025 Innovation Award from the Virginia Municipal League on Sunday for its fiscal year 2026 budget outreach efforts.
The award, presented at the VML Annual Conference in Roanoke, honors the city’s efforts to make its budget process more transparent and accessible amid potential federal funding cuts. Alexandria was one of seven Virginia localities to receive awards recognizing excellence in local government.
The VML provided the following as an example of the City of Alexandria’s efforts.
“It’s inspiring to see that despite the budget uncertainty this past year — or in some cases, because of it — our localities found ways to innovate and succeed,” VML Executive Director Michelle Gowdy said when the awards were announced in September. “Virginia’s local governments have a lot to be proud of.”
The league received nearly twice as many entries as last year, with 23 localities submitting projects across seven categories.
Alexandria’s winning entry centered on a multi-pronged approach to engage residents during a challenging budget cycle. The city created a centralized online Budget Hub, hosted pop-up events at farmers’ markets, and held a “Budget Bonanza” where residents met directly with department heads.
The strategy also included an online forum that fielded more than 100 questions, translated materials for non-English speakers, and short-form videos featuring city leaders. Social media engagement increased 93 percent compared to fiscal year 2025.
City officials emphasized keeping costs low by using existing events and no-cost platforms, creating what the entry described as “a scalable, resource-conscious model that other localities can replicate.”
Other category winners included Norfolk for public safety, Danville for community health, Hillsville for economic development, Strasburg for environmental quality, Roanoke for risk management and Chesapeake for working with youth.
“Congratulations to our City of Alexandria Communications Team for winning one of the 2025 Virginia Municipal League Innovation awards!! Go Team,” City Councilwoman Jacinta Greene wrote Monday morning on X.
Congratulations to our City of Alexandria Communications Team for winning one of the 2025 Virginia Municipal League Innovation awards!! Go Team @AlexandriaVAGov! 💚 pic.twitter.com/clOVta91y3
— Jacinta Greene (@Jacinta4AlexVA) October 13, 2025
