Raleigh earns GFOA Triple Crown for financial reporting
Raleigh won GFOA’s Triple Crown after clearing three reporting tests in one fiscal year, a rare mark earned by just 441 governments in the U.S. and Canada.
Raleigh’s new financial reporting award is really a test of how clearly city hall can explain taxes, debt and spending to the people who pay them. On June 16, 2026, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada named Raleigh a 2024 Triple Crown Winner, putting the city in a small group recognized for financial reporting that is both complete and public-facing.
The Triple Crown combines three separate honors in a single fiscal year: the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, the Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. For Raleigh residents, that matters less as a trophy case item than as a sign that the city’s annual reports and budget documents are meant to be readable enough for ordinary people to track where money goes, how debt is managed and what priorities are being funded. Raleigh’s budget portal already offers a dashboard and an archive of past budget documents and annual reports, including the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the Popular Annual Financial Report.
The recognition is also unusually selective. Raleigh said it was one of 441 governments in the United States and Canada to receive the Triple Crown, out of more than 22,000 incorporated municipalities across the two countries. The GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement program in 1945 to push governments beyond minimum accounting requirements, and it asks participating governments to submit their report within six months of the end of the fiscal year, followed by a review process that typically takes another six months.
At City Hall, the award lands in the middle of the finance operation overseen by Allison Bradsher, Raleigh’s chief financial officer. Bradsher joined the city in 2009 and was promoted to CFO in 2017. She oversees treasury and debt management, financial reporting and accounting, revenue services, risk management, procurement services, financial technology and compliance, and payroll services. In the city’s announcement, Bradsher said timely and accurate financial information is the foundation of transparency, trust and accountability.
Raleigh also tied the announcement to a broader civic mood, noting the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup win on Sunday night before the city’s own news. But the deeper measure of the Triple Crown is not celebration. It is whether Raleigh’s budget, debt and spending records stay accessible enough for residents in neighborhoods from East Raleigh to North Raleigh to scrutinize what the city is promising and what it is actually funding.
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