With less than a month before the deadline to respond to the 2020 Census, almost 85 percent of American homes have been counted. That seems like encouraging news, but in rural parts of the Mountain West, self-response rates are much lower, with many counties not even coming close to 50 percent.
Rural areas — what with the proliferation of P.O. boxes (where census surveys can’t be mailed), limited connectivity (for online census taking), sometimes skittish populations, and relative isolation — have traditionally been among what the US Census Bureau designates as ‘hard to count’. Case in point: The self-response rates for Grand, Summit, San Juan, Hinsdale, Mineral, and Costilla counties is less than 30 percent. That means even with enumerators knocking on doors, the counties could miss out on millions of dollars in annual federal funding for things like hospitals, schools, roads, and food assistance (all informed by census data) over the next 10 years.
Knowing what’s at stake, civic-minded nonprofit groups across the Mountain West — from youth groups and senior centers to public radio stations — have stepped in to help, doggedly working to ensure their communities are counted through outreach efforts, social media campaigns, and census collection events. Those activities require money, though, be it for supplies, translation services, or simply reimbursing exhausted volunteers for their time. That’s where the LOR Foundation, which works to enhance livability in the Mountain West, comes in.
On August 31, LOR began awarding $1,000 Instagrants to nonprofits conducting on-the-ground census activities in rural parts of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Their efforts are as unique as the communities they serve. For example, Wyoming’s Top of the Rockies Snowmobile Club is partnering with the town of Alpine to hire translators to assist with census response. In Colorado, Teller Senior Coalition is applying the funds to transport seniors to a senior center where a census worker is present once a week. And Montana’s Western Native Voice is using its Instagrant for a WiFi hotspot that will enable census work on the Crow reservation. (LOR updates its list of Instagrant recipients daily.)
“We launched Instagrants hoping to award $50,000 by September 15,” LOR executive director Gary Wilmot said. “By the end of day three, we already had well over 70 applications for 50 Instagrants.”
In light of the tremendous response, on September 4, LOR announced it will release another $50,000, bringing its total census Instagrant funding to $100,000. “Clearly there is a need,” Wilmot says. “These organizations have undertaken a Herculean effort to overcome the additional challenges brought about by COVID and a shortened timeline. We want to help them ensure a complete and accurate count—the results of which will inform the allocation of billions of dollars in federal funding and will have an impact on those communities for the next decade.”
Census By The Numbers
New Mexico
Federal funding: $7.8 billion
Total response rate: 76%
Colorado
Federal funding: $13 billion
Total response rate: 86%
Wyoming
Federal funding: $1.4 billion
Total response rate: 82%
Montana
Federal funding: $2.9 billion
Total response rate: 77%
Idaho
Federal funding: $3.6 billion
Total response rate: 98%
Source: GW Institute for Public Policy: “Counting for Dollars 2020: The Role of the Decennial Census in the Geographic Distribution of Federal Funds”
About the LOR Foundation
LOR works with rural communities in the Mountain West to enhance livability and prosperity while preserving the character that makes each community unique.