Recent reports have outlined how cuts to Medicaid would affect rural areas and children of color, an estimate of federal workers who might be fired from different geographic areas, and the disproportionate impact of preparedness and response to the California wildfires on Latino neighborhoods.
These are just some of the many ways census data are used to understand our society – and a good reminder on April 1, the anniversary of Census Day.
The census, required by the U.S. Constitution, is the once-a-decade count of every person in this country. It is also the ongoing American Community Survey (ACS) that collects more detailed information from a sample of the population about socio-economic issues, education, disability, health insurance, occupation, travel to work, marital status, demographics, and more.
Why an Accurate Count Matters
When we have an accurate count, it leads to fairer distribution of more than $2.1 trillion in federal funding to states, fairer district lines that determine school, state legislative, and congressional districts, fairer representation—particularly for people who have been marginalized—and smarter decision-making within communities about where to locate public services, such as health facilities, affordable housing, and fire fighter units.
Virtually every funder and their grantees rely on census data to promote a more inclusive society, whether the focus is about health and education equity, access to services, economic opportunity, or strengthening our democracy. However, it is safe to say most funders don’t realize the essential role the census plays in helping to carry out their mission.
Although everyone has a stake in the census, certain populations are persistently undercounted each decade, including people of color, young children, immigrants, low-income households, rural areas, and others. As we look toward the 2030 Census, we can expect the same undercount risk along with other challenges.
Threats to Participation
In addition to proposals to again add a citizenship question to the survey, there is a full-throated effort to reinterpret the U.S. Constitution’s requirement to count every person when apportioning congressional seats among the states by excluding noncitizens. Add in budget cuts that could affect proper planning, the termination of three Census Bureau advisory committees that provide critical public input on its operations, and the uncertainty that data scientists and civil servants at the Census Bureau face given widespread reductions in force. Even the American Community Survey, considered the “crown jewel” of census surveys, has faced targeted criticism including legislation to make the survey voluntary, which is a backdoor way of gutting participation.
We know these and other factors will impact people’s willingness to participate. Anti-immigrant and LGBTQ+ rhetoric, for example, only fuel concerns households already have about interactions with government – and filling out the census.
While not every damaging proposal can be stopped, we are in a better position today than at this point in the last cycle. The Census Equity Initiative, a funder collaborative started in 2015, has helped build an extensive infrastructure of organizations across the country to address persistent, differential undercounts. This includes a robust Census Counts coalition of the leading civil rights advocates and technical experts, state and local groups across the country who, as trusted leaders, are integrating census into their work, and engagement of key researchers helping provide tools to assist the census community.
What We Can Do Now
We have a 2030 Plan of Action that is supported by the infrastructure described above. This plan covers strategies to: improve census policies and operations; strengthen state-based outreach and collaboration; develop research to help the census community in their work; and an outreach plan to Get Out the Count.
One benefit of thousands of nonprofits being engaged in the 2020 Census is that they have learned to deal with census challenges and are eager to promote a fair and accurate 2030 count. Faced with a census being conducted during the pandemic, we saw innovative and creative approaches to reach and encourage persistently undercounted populations to fill out their census survey. And we saw committed community organizers work with national litigators to stop the addition of a citizenship question on the decennial census.
We can expect that same creativity and energy in this census cycle. But we need more help from philanthropy. We are co-convening national funders this spring and funders in 20 states have committed to hosting state funder events this year. There are many ways that funders can engage:
- Moving resources to the field – either through CEI’s pooled fund or aligned funding directly to groups;
- Facilitating learning within their institutions to understand how they and their grantees use census data to advance their mission;
- Leveraging their convening power to bring together funders, nonprofits, policymakers and others to plan for 2030; and
- Using their communications platforms to emphasize the importance of data integrity.
We hope funders will respond to the call to act now. We know not every funder will make census a top priority, but when funders each provide some funding in a coordinated manner, we collectively can accomplish significant things. Together we can strive for a census with data integrity – one without undercounts that fairly represents the population in the country.
Gary D. Bass and Jocelyn Bissonnette serve as Chair and Deputy Director of the Census Equity Initiative (CEI), respectively. CEI is a funder collaborative that pools and aligns funding to support a fair and accurate census and American Community Survey. Reach out to us at: info@censusequity.org.
