Civic Marketplace partners with the National Civic League’s All-America City Award

We’re excited to announce that Civic Marketplace has partnered with the National Civic League for the 2026 All-America City Award – one of the most respected civic recognition programs in the United States.

Running since 1949, the All-America City Award celebrates communities that use inclusive civic engagement, cross-sector collaboration, and local innovation to tackle their toughest challenges. Each year, the National Civic League selects 20 finalists from cities, counties, tribes, and community organizations across the country, honoring the ten winners at a flagship event.

This year’s theme – America at 250: Strengthening Civic Health and Building Trust – reflects a national moment when the need for responsive, participatory government has never been more urgent.

AI panel: From tools to trust

On Friday, June 26, our co-founder and CEO, Al Hleileh, will join a panel discussion titled From Tools to Trust: How to Harness AI without Undermining Democracy. 

Taking place at 3:15 – 4:15pm MT at the Grand Hyatt, Denver, the session will bring together practitioners and community leaders to explore how local governments can responsibly adopt AI, increasing efficiency and resident engagement without sacrificing accountability, transparency, or public trust.

Al will speak to how Civic Marketplace’s AI-enabled procurement platform helps governments access vetted tools more efficiently and transparently, offering a concrete example of how technology can boost institutional capacity while keeping public accountability front and center.

He’ll be joined by Christine Lopes Metcalfe of the National Civic League’s Local Policy Lab and Telia Butler, Downtown Development Coordinator of the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky, which used an AI tool to bring nearly 8,000 residents into a community visioning process. The session will be moderated by Anthony Santiago, Principal at Outside N Strategies.

Celebrating the 2026 finalists

This year’s 20 finalist communities were selected through a rigorous external review process, assessed across six criteria by a national jury of civic leaders. They represent an impressive range of communities from all over the country and are united by a commitment to bringing residents into the decisions that shape their lives. The work being recognized spans housing,  public safety, economic development, youth leadership, and community belonging: 

• Bowling Green-Warren County, Kentucky, used a large-scale digital engagement platform to bring roughly 8,000 residents into a community visioning process, generating over a million interactions and saving local leaders an estimated 28 days of work.

• In Norfolk, Virginia, residents were embedded in the planning and implementation of a neighborhood redevelopment project that resulted in stable housing for 89% of participating families, and contributed to a 40% reduction in homicides citywide.

• Woodburn, Oregon, where 58% of residents speak a language other than English at home, converted a former parking lot into a central plaza modeled on the Latin “zócalo” tradition, with direct resident input. The city also opened a Family Resource Center that leases space to nonprofit providers at a fraction of the market rate, serving more than 2,000 individuals in 2025 alone.

• In Opa-locka, Florida, where around 31% of families live below the poverty line, civic participation was low due to residents’ irregular working hours and reliance on public transportation. By taking municipal services directly into neighborhoods through its City Hall on Wheels program, the city reached 480 residents across 14 events in a single year – 41% of whom had never previously engaged with City Hall.

These represent long-term, structural commitments to a different kind of governance, where civic participation is built into how cities operate, rather than bolted on after decisions have already been made. 

The other finalists include: Chelsea, Massachusetts; Conway, South Carolina; Franklin, Tennessee; Grand Island, Nebraska; Harlingen, Texas; Huntsville, Alabama; Jenks, Oklahoma; Monrovia, California; Montgomery, Alabama; Morrisville, North Carolina; North Charleston, South Carolina; Opa-locka, Florida; River Forest, Illinois; Riviera Beach, Florida; Roanoke, Virginia; Stow, Ohio; Wichita, Kansas; and Woodburn, Oregon.

As the nation marks 250 years since its founding, the 2026 award theme – America at 250: Strengthening Civic Health and Building Trust – recognizes communities that are bringing the ideal of a government of, by, and for the people, to life. 

Platform access and white-glove activation for the All-America City Award Winners

Earlier that morning, Civic Marketplace will join the Friday convening of the 20 finalist community leaders to introduce our platform and share resources on how AI-powered procurement can help communities reinvest savings into local priorities.

Civic Marketplace is offering the 2026 All-America City Award winners white-glove onboarding and activation on our platform, alongside their local suppliers and small businesses. Directing public spending to local businesses carries an outsized return: the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond finds every $1 of government spending generates $1.30 to $2.00 in local GDP — a multiplier of up to 2× — while dollars spent at local independents recirculate two to four times more than those spent with national chains.

In addition, any All-America City Award winners that sign up to Civic Marketplace as lead entities, making their contracts available for peer agencies via our cooperative partners, will receive a two-year revenue benefit. Civic Marketplace will offer double the standard cooperative admin fee on platform transactions for the first 24 months, increasing the revenue that flows back to the city from its own procurement activity. 

For city leaders considering the role of their purchasing department, it helps to turn what is typically a cost conversation into a revenue and economic development conversation, changing the whole dynamic of their teams’ impact.

Why this partnership matters

The communities competing for the All-America City Award are exactly the kind of leaders we built Civic Marketplace for: local governments working hard to do more with less, engage residents meaningfully, and make smarter decisions about the tools and services they invest in. We’re proud to support their work and look forward to the conversations ahead in Denver.

Learn more about the 2026 All-America City Award at nationalcivicleague.org.