Leading Local Counties to the State’s Highest Response Rates

Census data touches so many aspects of our lives, influencing things like funding for healthcare, schools, transportation and much more. Research suggests that more than $1.5 trillion is allocated annually to state and local governments, businesses, nonprofits and households based on census data. The data is also used for reapportionment of congressional representation and state redistricting.

Knowing the stakes were high for the 2020 Census and that the count would impact all areas of its work to help local communities, SVCF began its census initiative in 2017. Based on the foundation’s past census work, staff knew starting early was crucial to ensuring a complete count of local residents and getting access to vital funding.

And it paid off. By the time the census period ended in October 2020, delayed because of the pandemic, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties had the top two census self-response rates in California — and a rate more than 10 percentage points over the national average.

SVCF began its census efforts with early support for the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) process. LUCA is a critical process that takes place two years before the census is launched to ensure that the U.S. Census Bureau has an accurate mailing list to invite residents to participate in the census. SVCF provided grants to nonprofits throughout San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that used new technology to identify and canvass communities with high levels of unconventional housing and housing that could potentially be missed, such as garages, in-law units and RVs.

Further challenges developed in the lead-up to the census. The U.S. Census Bureau had fewer resources and less funding to conduct the 2020 count compared to 2010. There were also several anti-immigrant policies enacted that presented barriers to census participation by immigrants.

SVCF knew that community members were fearful of participating in the census. With these challenges and the sheer increase of hard-to-count populations since 2010, the foundation worked closely with regional partners in philanthropy to raise funds that could provide more grants to the trusted nonprofits that work with the community.

“Being able to partner with SVCF and access its resources helped us reach so many more people who otherwise would have gone uncounted,” says Dolores Alvarado, CEO of Community Health Partnership, which represents community clinics that serve neighborhoods facing the most challenging of circumstances.

Silvia, a Silicon Valley janitorial worker, was one of the people reached through SVCF grantee Building Skills Partnership. “I have been in this country for 36 years, and after [receiving] this information I felt comfortable completing the census paper form for the first time,” she says.

And at grantee organization Nuestra Casa, one staff member shared how eye-opening and empowering she found the census work. Her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a toddler, and her parents thought the census did not involve them because they were not citizens. Getting involved in Nuestra Casa’s census work helped her feel like her voice made a difference for her family and community, she said, and completing the census with her family for the first time made her proud.

Collaborating to Ensure an Accurate Count

SVCF took the lead in hosting an online portal, streamlining grant application processes for nonprofits throughout the Bay Area, and collaborating with local and state government partners, the U.S. Census Bureau and United Way Bay Area.

Along with its regional partners, SVCF provided more than $3.9 million in grants, along with training and support, to nonprofit organizations to conduct census outreach.

SVCF’s nonprofit partners in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties started their outreach efforts early in 2019. When the pandemic hit in 2020, they changed their tactics. Many had plans for in-person events and door-to-door canvassing, which had to be paused. Instead, they communicated the census message when doing essential food deliveries at homes, offered curbside events to provide census questionnaire assistance and increased phone-banking to reach households. On top of adjusting to the pandemic, SVCF’s partners also had to manage constantly changing census deadlines from the government — and the effects of wildfires that threatened local neighborhoods and forced cancellation of outdoor activities due to poor air quality. Yet they persevered.

“Our grantees already work with hard-to-count populations and are trusted by the community,” says Anne Im, SVCF’s director of community investment, who led the census initiative. “These organizations serve low-income families, immigrants and many other groups that were at risk of not being counted in the census. We were proud to provide funding and training to help them reach, educate and galvanize our community to participate in the census.”

The final self-response rates — the rate at which households completed their census questionnaire online, by phone or by mail — reaffirmed the tremendous efforts of SVCF’s nonprofit partners. San Mateo and Santa Clara counties had the top two self-response rates in California, with San Mateo achieving a self-response rate of 78.6% and Santa Clara achieving a self-response rate of 77.7%, both well above their 2010 rates. California’s overall self-response rate in 2020 was 69.6%, and the U.S. self-response rate was 67.0%.

As SVCF works to achieve systemic change in Silicon Valley, its efforts on the 2020 Census were just one step toward ensuring that all residents — especially those who have been historically underrepresented — are counted and have a voice in our community.