Impact of the Census Decision on Nonprofits

On June 27, 2019, the US Supreme Court released its decision about the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census form. In a recent article published by Nonprofit Quarterly, author Tim Delaney breaks down the issue and what it means for US nonprofits.

Why does the census matter to nonprofits?

Because census results are used to allocate federal funding, they have a big impact on nonprofits. The addition of a citizenship question would likely result in a significant undercount of the number of people living in the US, as well as skew results about relative populations, particularly in areas with more undocumented immigrants. How would this impact nonprofits? Delaney explores three ways:

1. On average, states lose between $533 and $2,309 in federal funding for each person who is not counted. Though funding decreases, the needs of the uncounted people do not. Less government funding puts a greater burden on nonprofits.
2. Many nonprofits use census data as a basis for decisions about where and how to serve their communities. An inaccurate count skews the data available and can result in misallocation of nonprofit dollars.
3. An inaccurate census has a detrimental impact on trust in the government, and this negative effect can extend into the nonprofit sector.

What did the court decide?

The lengthy Supreme Court decision is not clear cut. By a split majority, the court ruled that the Commerce Secretary’s reasoning for including a citizenship question on the census was not legitimate. While this prevents the question for now, it does leave the door open for the federal government to try again, with new reasoning.

What can nonprofits do, moving forward?

Though the future of this issue is not clear, Delaney suggests a number of steps that nonprofits can take now in order to support a census that results in an accurate count.

1. Work in your local community to fight for a census without a citizenship question.
2. Pressure your public officials by reminding them what might happen in the state if it experiences funding losses due to an inaccurate census count.
3. Don’t get distracted by the court drama—focus on promoting a fair and accurate census count.

For more details, read the article in full at Nonprofit Quarterly.