Census Efforts in Illinois and Other States

There has been a huge increase in the investments states are making into getting an accurate census count. States are worried that not enough funds were invested in the Census Bureau during the planning stages. Additionally, changes such as the census being online and the potential citizenship question have raised concerns. California has invested in census outreach the earliest and with the most funds.

Projected State Investments in the Census

In addition to the $100.3M already approved, California is proposing to spend another $54M on its census outreach. While some states have set aside funds for census outreach, most are in the planning phase and have yet to publicize their strategies. For example, New York State will devote $20 Million towards its efforts, but as of June 21, 2019 has not developed a issued a request for proposal.

The chart below is from a Roll Call article posted on May 9, 2019. (Illinois' total is a combination of the two pending bills at the time of publishing that were reconciled into a final amount. Other state totals may reflect a similar circumstance, and could be overprojected.)

States to spend big on census prep

Anticipating a drop in federal funding, states have proposed and enacted millions of dollars to prepare for the 2020 census.

California

This is excerpted from California's Regional Administrative Community-Based Organization Outreach Request for Proposal, which was issued on December 14, 2018. California has now invested over $100M, and has another $54M in the Governor Newsom's proposed budget.

In support of a complete count, the California Legislature has appropriated $90.3 million to fund activities related to the 2020 Census. The California Complete Count-Census 2020 (CCC) Office, which is spearheading California's census outreach strategy, is making $30 million available to participating ACBOs, which are large community-based organizations (CBOs) with the administrative capacity and experience to conduct robust outreach throughout an entire region. California's communication and outreach strategy for the 2020 Census will focus on both geographic areas and demographic populations who are "least likely to respond". These areas and populations are commonly referred to as "hard-to-count (HTC)" areas.

The CCC Office will be funding two separate RFPs, for an estimated combined total of $27 million to be invested in community-based outreach efforts.

• $22,950,000 available for award across 10 distinct geographic regions. Each of the 10 regions has been allocated a specific dollar investment based on data/location of HTC populations.
• $4,050,000 for outreach to be conducted on a statewide level to multiple qualifying ACBOs that will focus outreach efforts on populations that the State has identified as HTC/least likely to respond.
• Depending on shifts in the State's goals or objectives, funding available in the resulting contract may increase each year.

Funded Census Efforts in Illinois

Approximately $3.1M of public and private funds has been granted to nonprofit organization to conduct census outreach activities to increase the self-response rates in Illinois. This has been done through two main efforts by the Illinois Secretary of State, and Forefront's IL Count Me In 2020 Funders' Collaborative. This chart does not reflect private foundation funding that may have been granted directly to these or other nonprofit organizations in Illinois.

Forefront was interested in funding collaborative efforts focused on increasing the self-response rates of hard to count communities throughout the state. Funded organizations were ones who had experience in community outreach and mobilization, deep relationships in their communities, an overall vision of connecting census work to creating a stronger democracy, and a strong organizational capacity. AS a part of its awarding process, Forefront also wanted to ensure that the funds were distributed equitably across geographic regions, as well as across the various hard to count populations. It used IDHS's 5 regions, adding a sixth region by separating Chicago from the rest of Cook County.

Organizations	Forefront	SOS
Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago		40,000
Arab American Family Services	Yes	109,227
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago	Yes
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council	Yes
CHANGE Illinois	Yes
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless	Yes
Chicago Urban League	Yes	189,743
City of Aurora		87,575
City of North Chicago		71,410
City of Quincy		74,000
Claretian Associates	Yes
Common Cause Education Fund	Yes
Communities United	Yes
Enlace Chicago	Yes
Erie Neighborhood House		100,000
Faith Coalition for the Common Good, Inc	Yes
First Ladies Health Alliance NFP	Yes
Gail Borden Public Library Foundation	Yes	148,490
Greater Chicago Food Depository		55,376
Howard Brown Health	Yes
Illinois Action for Children	Yes
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights	Yes
Illinois Migrant Council	Yes
Illinois Partners for Human Service	Yes
Latino Policy Forum	Yes
Latinos Progresando		30,000
Literacy Works		15,000
Logan Square Neighborhood Association	Yes
Mano a Mano Family Resource Center	Yes
Metropolitan Mayors Caucus		71,497
Mujeres Latinas en Accion		34,204
Muslim Civic Coalition	Yes	92,362
NAACP CHICAGO WESTSIDE BRANCH	Yes
NAACP--Carbondale Branch		139,760
ONE Northside	Yes
PASO West Suburban Action Project	Yes
Sinai Health System	Yes
Southern Illinois Community Foundation	Yes
Southwest Organizing Project	Yes
Spanish Community Center	Yes	98,995
St. Agatha Catholic Parish	Yes
The Resurrection Project	Yes	44,880
United Congregations of Metro-East	Yes
United Way of the Fox Valley	Yes
Waukegan Public Library Foundation	Yes
Westside Health Authority	Yes
Workers Center for Racial Justice Nfp	Yes
World Relief	Yes
Xilin Association		93,420
YBLC Inc.	Yes
Young Men's Christian Association of the University of Illinois	Yes
YWCA Metropolitan Chicago	Yes
Grand Total	$ 1,600,000	$ 1,495,939

*Does not reflect private foundation funding that may have been granted directly to these or other nonprofit organizations in Illinois.