Platform Overview

Polco is a unified platform built to help governments understand their communities, engage residents, and make informed, strategic decisions. By combining powerful data tools, benchmark surveys, public engagement features, and AI assistants, Polco supports every phase of modern governance from planning and budgeting to outreach and performance tracking. This overview introduces the core concepts behind the platform, how its modules connect, and what users can expect as they navigate the system.

What Is Polco?

Polco is a platform that helps local governments and community organizations make better decisions by combining credible data, validated public input, and AI-powered insights—all in one place.

Polco’s mission is to help leaders understand community needs, track performance over time, and engage residents in ways that build trust and transparency.

How Polco Works

Polco brings together four key capabilities into a single, integrated platform:

1. Data & Insights
   Access the most comprehensive set of community performance metrics available through GPAL (Government Performance Action & Learning).
   Compare your community to national, state, and peer benchmarks.
   Track progress across 10 key livability domains, including Economy, Safety, Housing, and more.
2. Engagement Tools
   Use polls, surveys, content posts, and live meeting tools to gather representative input from residents.
   Share updates and build ongoing conversations between community leaders and the public.
3. Benchmark Surveys
   Deploy professionally designed, nationally benchmarked surveys such as the National Community Survey (NCS), National Business Survey (NBS), and Community Assessment Survey for Older Adults (CASOA).
   Compare results to hundreds of other jurisdictions nationwide.
4. AI Tools
   Work with specialized AI assistants like Polly (data insights) and Grace (grant writing) to save time, improve decisions, and uncover opportunities.
   Integrate your own data with Polco’s platform for custom insights.

Who Uses Polco

• City, County, and State Governments
• School Districts
• Economic Development Agencies
• Public Safety Departments
• Nonprofits and Community Organizations

Why Governments Choose Polco

• All-in-One Platform – Reduce the need for multiple disconnected tools.
• Validated Data – Nationally benchmarked surveys and trusted data sources ensure credibility.
• Representative Input – Engagement methods designed to reach all community voices.
• Actionable Insights – Clear, visualized data for faster, more informed decision-making.
• Transparency – Share progress with residents and stakeholders in a clear, public-friendly format.

In short: Polco equips leaders with the facts, context, and public input they need to make confident, community-centered decisions.

 

 

Our Mission and Values

Polco’s mission is to help leaders make informed, community-centered decisions by uniting credible data, validated resident input, and AI-powered insights in a single platform.

We believe that good governance starts with a clear understanding of community needs, transparent decision-making, and active resident participation.

Our Core Values

• Integrity – Provide data and insights that are accurate, unbiased, and grounded in trusted sources.
• Transparency – Make public sector decision-making open, understandable, and accessible to residents.
• Inclusivity – Ensure that engagement reflects the full diversity of the community, not just the most vocal voices.
• Collaboration – Foster strong partnerships between government leaders, residents, and community organizations.
• Innovation – Continuously improve our tools and methods to help communities meet evolving challenges.
• Impact – Focus on delivering outcomes that strengthen trust, improve quality of life, and create lasting change.

What This Means for You

When you use Polco, you’re not just adopting a tool—you’re partnering with a team committed to strengthening democracy, improving livability, and building resilient communities. Every feature, survey, and insight is designed with this mission at heart.

 

 

How Polco Helps Local Governments

Polco helps governments make better decisions by connecting reliable data, resident input, and actionable insights in one platform. Our tools support every stage of the decision-making process from identifying community needs to tracking results over time.

Key Ways We Support Local Governments

• Understand Community Needs – Access national, state, and peer benchmarks to see how your community compares in areas like safety, economy, housing, and more.
• Engage Residents Effectively – Use polls, surveys, and interactive tools to collect representative feedback from all segments of your community.
• Make Data-Driven Decisions – Combine benchmark data, local metrics, and resident perspectives to guide policies and priorities.
• Demonstrate Transparency – Share clear, public-friendly results to build trust and keep residents informed.
• Save Time and Resources – Streamline workflows by using a single platform for data, engagement, and AI-assisted analysis.

Departments We Serve

While Polco is designed to benefit the entire organization, it offers unique value to specific departments and functions:

• City and County Management – Strategic planning, performance measurement, and public communication.
• Finance & Budgeting – Data-informed budgeting, prioritization, and community input on fiscal trade-offs.
• Parks & Recreation – Understanding resident priorities for facilities, programs, and open space.
• Public Safety – Measuring community trust, perceptions of safety, and operational performance.
• Housing & Planning – Using data and simulations to guide zoning, housing policy, and development strategies.
• Economic Development – Tracking economic indicators, supporting business retention, and identifying workforce needs.

The Result

By integrating data, engagement, and AI tools, Polco gives local governments a clearer picture of community priorities and performance allowing leaders to make decisions that are not only effective, but also backed by evidence and supported by residents.

 

 

Public vs Admin Interfaces

Polco has two main interfaces, each designed for a specific audience and purpose: the public-facing interface for residents and the admin interface for government staff and partners.

Public Interface (Resident Experience)

The public interface is what residents see when they interact with your organization on Polco. It is accessible without special permissions and is designed to be engaging, accessible, and mobile-friendly.

• Access: Available to anyone via a shareable link, embedded widget, or the Polco website.
• Features:
  • View and respond to public polls and surveys.
  • Explore simulations like budget or tax scenarios.
  • Read public project updates and view posted content.
  • See high-level results once released by administrators.

• Registration: Optional for most engagement activities, required for certain surveys or participation tracking.

Admin Interface (Staff & Partner Experience)

The admin interface is where authorized users create, manage, and analyze content, data, and projects. It is designed for flexibility, collaboration, and secure data handling.

• Access: Login required with role-based permissions; multi-factor authentication available.
• Features:
  • Create and publish polls, surveys, posts, and simulations.
  • Upload and manage datasets, including BYOD (Bring Your Own Data) files.
  • View detailed survey and data dashboards, including Track indicators.
  • Analyze results with built-in benchmarking and AI assistants like Polly and Grace.
  • Manage user roles, permissions, and project-level access.
  • Export reports, data tables, and visualizations for sharing.
• Design: Optimized for productivity with filtering, search, and multi-project management tools.

How the Interfaces Work Together

The two interfaces are connected through shared data and workflows:

• Engagement created in the admin interface appears instantly in the public interface.
• Resident responses are securely captured and reported back to the admin interface for analysis.
• Admins can choose to publish results publicly or keep them internal for planning.

This two-interface approach ensures a clear separation between public engagement and internal administration while keeping information flowing seamlessly between them.

Glossary of Terms

This glossary defines key terms, acronyms, and concepts used throughout the Polco platform. Understanding these terms will help you navigate the platform and interpret data more effectively.

A

• AI Assistant – An artificial intelligence tool within Polco, such as Polly or Grace, that helps analyze data, generate reports, or assist with tasks like grant writing.
• API (Application Programming Interface) – A method that allows Polco to securely exchange data with other software systems.
• Assessment Tools – Polco’s suite of benchmark surveys designed to capture validated community, business, employee, and law enforcement feedback.

B

• Balancing Act – An interactive simulation tool for budgets, taxes, and policy trade-offs that lets residents explore decisions and provide informed feedback.
• Benchmark Data – Data that has been compared to national, state, or peer community averages to provide context for local results.
• Benchmark Survey – A survey designed to measure performance against national or peer standards, using representative sampling methods.
• BYOD (Bring Your Own Data) – A feature that allows users to upload local datasets, reports, or plans into the Polco platform for integration with existing data.

C

• Community Livability Snapshot (CLS) – A visual summary of key community performance metrics, drawn from Track and survey data.
• Comparison Group – A set of communities used to benchmark your results, often based on population, region, or other shared characteristics.

D

• Dashboard – A visual display of data indicators and performance metrics, organized by livability domain.
• Data Indicator – A specific measurable value (e.g., unemployment rate, graduation rate) used to assess community performance.
• Domain – One of Polco’s key areas of livability, such as Economy, Safety, or Housing & Community Design.

E

• Engagement Tools – Features in Polco that allow governments to collect input from residents, including polls, surveys, and live events.

G

• GPAL (Government Performance Action & Learning) – Polco’s framework and data engine that powers the Track dashboards with curated, benchmarked indicators.

I

• Indicator Synonym – Alternative names for a data indicator, used to improve search and usability.
• Index Score – A weighted, benchmarked score summarizing performance in a domain based on multiple indicators.

L

• Livability Domains – The major categories of community well-being measured by Polco’s Track platform.

P

• Polly – Polco’s AI data assistant that answers questions about your community’s performance using Track and survey data.
• Project Page – A centralized page for sharing data, updates, and engagement opportunities related to a specific initiative.

R

• Resident Sentiment – The perceptions and opinions of residents, gathered through surveys, polls, and other feedback tools.
• Role-Based Permissions – Access controls that determine which features and data each user can view or manage.

S

• Simulation – An interactive model that allows residents to explore the impact of different policy, budget, or program choices.
• Synonyms Field – A data feature that stores alternate search terms for an indicator to improve discoverability.

T

• Track – Polco’s data visualization and performance tracking module, showing benchmarked community metrics across 10 domains.