Public Participation Partners

What Public Participation Partners does

Public Participation Partners (P3) is a women-owned public engagement and communications consulting firm founded in 2017 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a secondary office in Winston-Salem. The firm provides community engagement, equitable outreach, public input survey development, multi-lingual translation and interpretation, meeting planning (in-person and virtual), community impact assessment, and Environmental Justice analysis services. Its primary customers are state, county, and municipal public agencies together with planning and engineering consulting firms that subcontract the public involvement component of transportation, environmental, housing, and neighborhood planning projects. Notable clients include the North Carolina Department of Transportation, City of Raleigh, City of Asheville, GoTriangle, Raleigh Housing Authority, and a roster of municipal governments across North Carolina and Florida (e.g., Gainesville).

The company's underlying technology footprint is light: P3 is a certified implementation partner of PublicInput.com, a third-party survey and virtual public meeting platform, which it deploys on client engagements rather than developing in-house. The core differentiator is regulatory and methodological expertise — NEPA environmental review compliance, Title VI, IAP2 standards, and outreach to Limited English Proficiency and Environmental Justice populations — rather than proprietary software. P3 is DBE/MBE certified in nine states plus Washington D.C. (NC, SC, FL, MA, MI, OH, PA, VA) and holds HUB, SBE, and SPSF certifications in North Carolina, creating preferred-vendor status for set-aside government contracts and joint-venture opportunities.

P3 generates revenue through project-based professional services engagements with public agencies and engineering/planning firms. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; contracts appear to be awarded via government RFP and on-call processes. Go-to-market is direct, relationship-based business development targeting state DOTs, MPOs, transit authorities, and municipalities across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Northeast, supported by content marketing through blog posts, a MailChimp newsletter, and LinkedIn/Facebook presence. The firm is privately held with no disclosed funding, is not publicly traded, and operates with approximately six employees. P3 is a member of The Amalgamation network of minority-, women-, and veteran-owned DBE firms and won the 2021 APA North Carolina Chapter Public Engagement Award.

Name

Public Participation Partners

Legal name

Public Participation Partners

Website

https://publicparticipationpartners.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Public Participation Partners is a women-owned consulting firm providing community engagement, equitable outreach, NEPA/Title VI compliance, and public participation services to public agencies and planning/engineering firms across multiple U.S. states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Raleigh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consulting Services: Project-based consulting fees for community engagement and public participation services provided to public agencies and planning/engineering firms. Revenue is generated through professional service engagements for specific projects including transportation planning, environmental assessments, and community outreach.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Public Participation Partners (P3) is a women-owned consulting firm that delivers community engagement and communications services to public agencies and planning/engineering firms. Core offerings include equitable outreach to underrepresented populations (LEP and Environmental Justice communities), survey design and deployment, multi-lingual translation and interpretation, in-person and virtual public meeting planning, and Community Impact and Environmental Justice analysis for NEPA compliance. The firm operates through project-based consulting engagements rather than selling a software product.

Product overview

Public Participation Partners (P3) is a women-owned public engagement and communications consulting firm that operates as a single unified service offering rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture. Their core offering centers on community engagement and public involvement consulting services for public agencies and planning/engineering firms. The service portfolio includes equitable outreach, survey development and implementation, multi-lingual translation/interpretation, meeting planning (in-person and virtual), community impact assessment, and environmental justice analysis. In 2020, they expanded to offer standalone communications, graphic design, and social media services as an additional service line.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Community Engagement and Communications Consulting Full-service public involvement and communications consulting that delivers cost-effective traditional and specialized engagement services to public agencies and planning/engineering firms.
• Equitable Outreach Services Targeted outreach to underrepresented populations, including Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and Environmental Justice communities, to ensure equitable engagement opportunities in project planning.
• Public Input Survey Development and Implementation Design and deployment of online and paper surveys to gather community feedback and preferences for project planning and decision-making.
• Multi-lingual Translation and Interpretation Services Language services including translation and interpretation that support engagement with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) populations.
• Meeting Planning and Logistics (In-Person and Virtual) Planning and coordination of in-person and virtual public meetings, including focus groups, public hearings, workshops, charrettes, open houses, and virtual public meetings.
• Community Impact Assessment Community and Environmental Justice assessment research and documentation for NEPA environmental review compliance, including indirect and cumulative effects assessment.
• Environmental Justice Analysis Analysis services ensuring compliance with Title VI and NEPA requirements and assessing impacts on environmental justice communities.
• Communications, Graphic Design, and Social Media Services Standalone marketing and communications services including social media campaign support, target audience reach, graphic design, and marketing assistance, offered separately from P3's community engagement services.

Quantifiable outcome

• Record-breaking demographic survey participation for City of Raleigh survey
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• The AmalgamationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerP3 is a proud member of The Amalgamation - a network of small minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses working to increase equity in government projects. The network connects partners with other DBE small businesses for contracting opportunities and helps find the right partnerships with larger firms. The mission is to promote equity in government contracting through small business empowerment.
• PublicInput.comcoreTechnology or IntegrationP3 is a Certified Partner of PublicInput.com, a comprehensive survey and virtual meeting platform for government agencies. As a certified partner, P3 is trained to help agencies utilize the platform through survey building, live audience participation, analytics, and social media integration.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• ICF International: Global consulting and digital services firm with a public sector practice that includes community engagement, EJ analysis, and stakeholder outreach for federal, state, and local clients. Comparable in serving the same regulatory-driven public engagement mandates.
• AECOM: Global infrastructure consulting firm with a public engagement practice supporting transportation, environmental, and community development projects. Comparable as a competitor on large public-sector community engagement RFPs.
• Stantec: Engineering, architecture, and environmental services firm with community engagement and public involvement capabilities across North America. Comparable as a competitor pursuing similar NEPA and public engagement scopes for state DOT and municipal clients.
• Kimley-Horn: Planning, engineering, and design consulting firm with a community engagement practice serving public-sector transportation and land-use clients, including in the Carolinas. Comparable as a competitor for the same municipal and DOT public participation work.
• Granicus: Government experience cloud platform (which acquired MindMixer) offering public engagement tools alongside broader civic tech capabilities. Comparable as an end-to-end platform incumbent competing for the same government agency engagement technology and service budgets.
• VHB: Engineering, planning, and consulting firm with significant transportation and community development public engagement capabilities in the Eastern US. Comparable as a competitor for NEPA, EJ, and Title VI public involvement scopes.
• WSP USA: Global engineering and professional services firm with a substantial public involvement and community engagement practice serving DOTs, transit agencies, and municipalities. Comparable as a competitor for the same NEPA/EJ public engagement scopes P3 pursues, but with much broader service breadth and capacity.
• Michael Baker International: Engineering, planning, and consulting firm with public involvement and NEPA practice serving DOTs and municipalities across the US. Comparable in delivering transportation and infrastructure public engagement work for similar clients.

Emerging players

• MetroQuest: Public engagement software platform for planning and infrastructure projects, providing surveys, interactive mapping, and online engagement tools. Comparable as an alternative technology stack for the virtual engagement scope P3 currently delivers via PublicInput.com.
• PublicInput.com: Government-focused virtual engagement and survey platform and a core technology partner of P3. Comparable as the underlying engagement-technology stack P3 deploys for clients, and a potential competitor if it expands into direct consulting services.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/publicparticipationpartners
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/publicparticipationpartners

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Public Participation Partners