The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between a participative budgeting system, the attitudes toward the budget, and levels of organizational trust held by administrators in post-secondary institutions. A 50-item questionnaire was distributed to college and university administrators across Canada. A series of regression analyses were carried out to determine the relationships between the variables of interest. Perceived levels of participation in developing the operational budget were found to be positively related to budget usefulness, overall budget grade, and organizational trust levels. Participation was found to be negatively related to the perceived levels of budget gaming taking place. This study provides confirmatory evidence of the positive benefits of a participative approach to budget development in a post-secondary environment. The usefulness of the budgeting process as a management tool to convey information, to give voice and context to membership within the organization, and to build organizational trust is supported.