# README **by Lena Geraghty and Katherine Klosek** with contributions from Kristen Ahearn and Carter Hewgley *** Performance-based budgeting is the allocation of funds based on programmatic results that contribute to organizational goals. For governments, performance-based budgeting uses evidence to maximize the allocation of funds toward programs that work and away from those that don’t. This guide details performance-based budgeting and describes how it can be tied into new or existing performance management and analytics programs. To assist cities in developing performance-based budgeting practices, the [Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University](http://govex.jhu.edu/), a partner in the [What Works Cities initiative](http://www.whatworkscities.org/), has created this guide. By learning from the experiences of other cities and following the steps described in this guide, cities will have a greater understanding of performance-based budgeting and be well on their way to rethinking how budgeting can work for them. ![](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/govex/govex.github.io/master/images/WWC_ResourceStamp_web.png) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://govex.gitbook.io/performance-based-budgeting/readme.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.