$1.6 million Census Rapid Response Grant opportunity!!
Census Funds are available through the National League of Cities (NLCs)
Welcome! NLC’s Census Rapid Response Grant Program extends urgent financial resources for cities and their local partners to improve or increase Get Out The Count (GOTC) activities in order to reach historically undercounted communities and hard-to-count (HTC) communities.
GRANT AMOUNTS: $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $40,000
Proposals will be accepted on a rolling, on-going basis until all funds are granted, or by July 31, 2020, whichever comes first.
WHO CAN APPLY: Cities; Local partners working with city leaders (including but not limited to: nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, local social service providers, libraries, county offices, fraternities and sororities, faith-based groups, parent and volunteer groups with tax status); Tribal governments and organizations. NLC members and non-members eligible!
TO APPLY for this grant, please be prepared to provide the following information in our simple application form:
– Specify which HTC population(s) your grant will target. You can target more than one group with a single grant.
– Be able to explain how quickly your organization (city or otherwise) is able to receive and deploy funds received. We want money to go from our account to yours quickly so you can use the funds fast to reach your historically undercounted communities.
– Describe (in a few sentences) what kind of activity you will fund with this grant money (see below for some examples).
– Tell us how much this/these activity/activities will cost (estimates are fine) — don’t forget to add 10% for overhead/operating costs!
– Give us a basic timeline of when these activities will happen. Remember, this is CRUNCH time! Don’t hesitate to spend this money fast!
– Provide your banking information so that upon grant approval, funding can begin processing immediately (please use this ACH form and upload in your application).
DELIVERABLES for this grant include (but are not limited to):
– Spend all the funds before July 31, 2020.
– Pay-it-forward: Notify a minimum of three (3) other city census offices or local partner organizations that are NOT members of the Local Census Preparedness Network and that could use additional funding for their HTC Census outreach of this grant opportunity. We want to make sure that cities and organizations that may not be plugged in to the same networks that we’re plugged in to find out about this money.
– [email protected]g must be included on the Pay-It-Forward emails.
– Publish a minimum of three (3) social media posts (ideally with images) of activities funded with this grant.
– Use the hashtag #CensusRapidResponseNLC on all social media about events/activities funded with this grant.
– Be available for one to three (1-3) check-in calls over the life of the grant.
– Respond to a short survey report about what you did with your grant award.
ACTIVITY IDEAS for Census 2020 Rapid Response grants:
– Buy 5 tablets and create 5 census kiosks to set-up around your city
– Increase your printing budget by $5,000! Print posters, fliers, door hangers or buttons for GOTC activities in your community
– Hire additional staff for the duration of the Census to execute on your GOTC activities to reach historically undercounted communities
– Host community census response parties (who doesn’t love pizza while filling out their census??). Coordinate a census response party with your local library and order $500 of pizza to the library every Saturday between April and June for these parties!
– Give us your best idea! You are the expert on your community, so please tell us how you think you can best reach HTCs in your area
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out either by responding to this post or by emailing me directly: [email protected].
