May 2025: Behind the Scenes: A Big Shift is Happening

Dear Friend,

I want to share some exciting things happening behind the scenes at Strong Towns.

Last month, we rolled out the Finance Decoder—a tool we’ve been working on for 18 months—with a series of five articles and a live web event. The response was more enthusiastic than we anticipated. The articles were widely read, discussed, and—best of all—people started using the tool themselves.

We've seen the Finance Decoder show up "in the wild," with individuals and advocates analyzing their own local budgets and then sharing those insights with others. This is exactly what we hoped would happen.

Real people, in real places, building a real movement for financial sanity.

Recently, I recorded a podcast with two guys from Texas—Chad and Patrick with the firm ZacTax—who help cities understand their finances. On the side, they also teach future public servants. During our conversation, they shared something that floored me: they said that most cities in Texas today are doing a solid job accounting for their finances—something that wasn’t true a decade ago.

When they listed the cities that sparked this shift, they named place after place where I had visited in the early days of Strong Towns. Places where someone had invited us to share the Strong Towns message, hoping it might take root.

It has. It’s working.

Even more powerful: Chad and Patrick said that today’s students—future city managers and planners—show up already knowing Strong Towns. It’s not a fringe idea for them; it’s foundational.

We don’t always get to see the seeds we plant grow, but we are now. The work you support—the work we’re doing together—is changing the course of things, even if it sometimes feels slow.

The Strong Towns movement is growing. We just wrapped up a record Member Week. We have more members and more active Local Conversations today than ever before.

And just so you know, the Finance Decoder was made possible by a single donation from an anonymous supporter—someone who first found us because a stranger shared one of our posts. That’s the kind of multiplier effect we’re seeing. That’s how real change happens.

Thank you for being part of this. Thank you for helping us build something strong, something lasting.

We’re in the middle of it. It’s working. Let’s keep going.

With gratitude,
Chuck Marohn
Founder & President, Strong Towns