The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) is continuing to highlight the work of our
Nonprofits Count! grantees who are doing work to get their communities counted, even in times of crisis. MCN believes nonprofits have a critical role to promote community participation and build power. The census is a vehicle for equity and inclusion and ensuring fair political representation and distribution of resources in our communities. We are all stronger when communities are using their voice and power to help shape and change the systems that impact them every day – especially communities that have been historically disenfranchised. To that end, MCN offers updates regarding the census 2020 Operational Timeline.
To ensure a fair and accurate 2020 census, and to protect the health and safety of U.S. Census Bureau employees and the public, the U.S. Census Bureau announced this week adjustments to their operational timeline.
Key changes:
- Self-Response (such as completing a paper questionnaire and mailing it back to the Census Bureau) is now extended. The dates for self-response are now from March 12 to August 14, 2020; giving communities and nonprofits more time to digitally organize to make sure everyone is counted.
- Group Quarters Enumeration is delayed; it now starts April 16, 2020 and ends June 19, 2020. Group Quarters Enumeration is the U.S. Census Bureau's special processes for counting people who live or stay in group quarters during the 2020 census. Because group quarters are owned or managed by a third party, the U.S. Census Bureau assists group quarters administrators in responding to the census on behalf of residents to ensure a complete and accurate census count.
- Service Based Enumeration, which includes food vans, soup kitchens, and shelters is delayed. The new timeframe is now April 29-May 1, 2020.
- The Census counting people experiencing homelessness outdoors (i.e. in parks, in all-night businesses, and under bridges) is delayed by one month, the new date is May 1, 2020.
Operations that are still on schedule:
- Delivering apportionment counts to the President, December 31, 2020
- Delivering redistricting counts to states, April 1, 2021
It is more important now than ever for nonprofits to ensure their communities are counted:
- Public health workers and first responders rely on population counts to make critical decisions.
- Critical data used to address the current pandemic came from the census.
- A strong democracy is required to address public emergencies; and a fair and accurate census is essential to creating a just and equitable democracy.
In November 2019, MCN granted 36 organizations $2,000-5,000 grants to conduct census outreach. In the next few weeks, MCN will be sharing grantee stories with some covering the shift from pre-COVID-19 plans to digitally organizing communities during this time of crisis. Stay tuned via facebook, twitter, and Instagram where these stories will be highlighted.
Visit MCN's Census 2020 page
Additional Census Updates:
Census Invitations were delivered on March 12, 2020. Look out for a letter in a sealed envelope with a 12-digit ID unique to your address. Use the 12-digit ID to bypass entering in your address and other Identification information. If you have not received an invitation in the mail, you can fill out the census for your household if go to my2020census.gov and click “I do not have a Census ID.”
Response Map: Are you curious to see how many people in your community have responded to the 2020 census? Check out the response rates map from the U.S. Census Bureau. https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Statement from U.S. Census Bureau on operational adjustments, for more information on the census operational timeline changes, view the U.S. Census Bureau's statement by clicking here.
For questions or comments concerning the census please reach out to Michelle Chang, Policy and Equity Coordinator mchang@minnesotanonprofits.org.