Key decisions being made now about the 2030 Census and ACS will influence the fairness and accuracy of the count. For example: What questions will be asked on the surveys and how they will be asked, how the Census Bureau will approach outreach to those who are persistently undercounted, how the Census Bureau will mitigate the growing undercount of low-income, immigrant, and people of color households missed in the ACS, and whether the Census Bureau will have adequate resources to support planning and testing all of the above. It is essential to support the nonprofit infrastructure now—including census technical experts, national advocates, and state coalitions—to improve the ACS and plan for 2030.

The persistent, documented undercount of people of color, along with the overcounting of white populations, spurred an unprecedented mobilization of actors across civil society—including foundations and nonprofit organizations—to promote a fair and accurate 2020 Census. Hundreds of funders across the country joined the Census Equity Initiative, a funder collaborative, to help fund grantees, partner with nonprofits and government, speak out on urgent issues, and help build an infrastructure that has carried over to other civic issues. These funders and nonprofit organizations asked CEI to continue the work started in 2015, now to promote a fair and accurate 2030 Census and American Community Survey.

Numerous policy issues related to the decennial census and ACS are being determined now. Key issues include identifying ways to mitigate the 2020 undercount to ensure fair distribution of government funding for programs serving marginalized people; improving questions regarding race and ethnicity (including adding an ethnic category for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) people) so that there is more accurate data; adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity; and changing policies to address the undercount of young children and the unhoused, prison gerrymandering, and other operational issues.

CEI helps coordinate meetings with Census Bureau leadership, funders, and stakeholders on issues of shared concern regarding Census and ACS operations and planning. We also provide support to the stakeholders engaged in encouraging the Census Bureau to address policies and operations weaknesses when it comes to counting those at risk of being undercounted. And we submit comments, often in tandem with other funders, to the Census Bureau and other federal agencies on plans that impact the census.

CEI funds are also used to monitor proposals that may harm census operations, such as proposals to add a citizenship or legal immigration status question or even to exclude non-citizens or undocumented from the decennial count, congressional apportionment, and redistricting. There may be attempts to modify Title 13 of the U.S. Code, which is the statute guiding all census work including confidentiality of the data. We can also expect proposals to weaken the ACS such as ones to reduce the sample size, at a time when advocates believe the sample size needs to be expanded to address the data quality issues regarding small populations, such as Native Americans and Arab Americans.

While nothing can be done about the 2020 undercounts when it comes to apportionment or redistricting, the Census Bureau can make changes that improve the distribution of federal funds to states. This requires supporting those with technical expertise to work with the Census Bureau to encourage and monitor such changes.

The Census Equity Initiative has been providing support to organizations addressing issues like those described above. CEI also works closely with the stakeholder coalition called Census Counts, which is coordinated by: Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, NALEO Educational Fund, National Urban League, and The Leadership Conference Education Fund.

The Census Equity Initiative aims to bolster support to these organizations and fund others who are exercising important roles in research, policy development, advocacy, coordination, and communications toward the goal of fair and accurate census and ACS.

A crucial part of the 2020 effort was the infrastructure developed within states and across local, state and national efforts to “Get Out the Count” and promote policies and actions for a fair count. To sustain collaboration and aligned action, the Census Equity Initiative is supporting the following:

• State-based organizing through the Census Equity Fund. CEI is supporting 14 state-based networks, most that were built with our funding during the 2020 census. The nonprofit coalitions are educating community stakeholders, the media and policymakers about important, urgent census and ACS issues; supporting outreach on the ACS, planning for 2030 and advocating to improve census bureau operations; developing skills within community organizations to utilize census data; and leveraging state and local funding for the census. CEI hopes to expand funding to more states as well as the amounts for each state over the coming years, growing to at least 25 states by the time of the 2030 Census.
• Census coordination/communication mechanisms. CEI is supporting Census Counts to continue their critical field coordination role. Additionally, CEI is supporting the States Count Action Network (S-CAN), led by The Leadership Conference Education Fund and State Voices, to inform and connect state-based census partners. Independent evaluation of the 2020 census work identified S-CAN as vital not only in keeping groups around the country up to date but also in keeping them on the same page.
• Information sharing and field learning. We will continue to hold three national meetings each year. In the lead-up to the 2020 Census, these census convenings became an important vehicle for strengthening the census collaborative by providing opportunities for stakeholders, funders and representatives from state and local government associations to connect and share information with one another. CEI will support briefings and other initiatives to build the capacity of state and local nonprofits working on the ACS and census.
• Philanthropic outreach. We will continue to provide census and ACS education and outreach within the funder community, especially important given staff, and board turnover over the decade. This includes providing grants to philanthropy serving organizations and developing information on how these issues directly relate to foundations’ missions and strategies.

Many stakeholders expressed the importance of supporting research projects to address technical aspects for improving the count of historically undercounted populations or to help explain the importance of the census to the public and policymakers. Five research categories were identified as priorities: (1) localizing the impact of census data; (2) addressing ACS data quality; (3) other census research, analyses and related projects (e.g., the children count; use of administrative data; testing census data quality); (4) differential privacy and the ACS; and (5) monitoring census mis- and disinformation and developing counter narratives.

Examples of research that have been started through some combination of direct funding by donors and through the CEI pooled fund include:

• Census and ACS data quality. Given the significant 2020 census undercounts described above, it is vitally important to identify ways that the Census Bureau can continue to mitigate the impact on government funding formulas moving forward. CEI is supporting the Census Quality Reinforcement task force, a coalition of more than 100 historians, data scientists, former Census Bureau directors and leaders, attorneys, and civil rights advocates, to research ways of improving census data accuracy to share with the Census Bureau.
  • There is growing uncertainty about ACS data quality, which needs to be urgently addressed. CEI is supporting organizations such as the Census Project, which is doing research on relevant topics and developing mitigation and improvement strategies.
• Impact of census data. CEI and state funders are prioritizing research on how the census influences federal funding allocations at the state level and, where possible, within states. Project on Government Oversight is carrying on the work started by George Washington University Research Prof. Andrew Reamer to analyze the impact census data have on the distribution of funds from more than 330 federal programs to each state. Additionally, as a pilot, they are working with funders and nonprofits in Texas and Michigan to analyze for selected federal programs the impact census data have on the allocation of federal funds within a state by county.
• Other census research. CEI and other funders have supported noted demographer Dr. William O’Hare to analyze census data with a focus on children. This includes analyzing state and county undercounts for young children. Much of the research overlaps with issues raised under the data quality section above.

In 2023, CEI prepared a GOTC Funding Priorities Plan that was endorsed by stakeholders and funders alike. It identifies key areas of work to support leading up to 2030. The plan has five components: (a) Research to help with outreach, including culturally resonant message research; (b) Outreach to reach persistently undercounted populations; (c) Strengthening communications infrastructure and capacity building, including for digital organizing; (d) Media outreach, including paid and earned media especially through ethnic media, the arts and popular culture; and (e) Rapid response and contingency planning to address unexpected actions that may influence the decennial census. As part of the plan’s implementation, CEI has supported a variety of working groups, including newer ones focused on Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA), mapping, communications and message testing, and digital organizing.