The Bureau designed its Integrated Communications Campaign to help  increase census participation. As one  example, the contractor worked with the Bureau to segment the  population into distinct groups or “clusters” using socioeconomic,  demographic, and other data from the 2000 Census that are correlated  with a person’s likelihood to participate in the census. Key Practices Are Helping to Enhance the Effectiveness of the Partnership Program

To help promote the census and convince people to respond, the Bureau  plans to partner with state, local, and tribal governments; religious,  community, and social service organizations; and private businesses. According to the Bureau, it partnered with around 140,000  organizations during the 2000 Census. According to the Bureau, it will allocate the partnership staff among and  within the Bureau’s 12 regions using a formula that incorporates the hard- to-count score, as well as other data, including population size, geographic  information, language needs, and local knowledge. Officials emphasized  that they are using census data to focus resources on hard-to-count  populations. In  addition to these best practices we also included several  recommendations aimed at making the partnership program more  accountable and performance-oriented—all of which the Bureau  implemented. The Bureau reports that it has obtained  partnership agreements with over 10,000 organizations as of February  2009. That said, as the Bureau monitors the progress of the partnership efforts, it  will be important for the Bureau to develop specific performance metrics  linked to the goals of the partnership program and the census itself. The Bureau Updated Its Paid Media and Public Relations Strategy to Meet a Changing Media Environment

The Bureau will use numerous paid media sources, such as TV, radio, the  Internet, and magazines, to reach individuals from all clusters and ethnic  audiences. The Bureau plans to devote 55 percent of its advertising  resources to national media, which provide the broadest reach, and 45  percent to local media, which better target specific hard-to-count  communities. However, the Bureau reduced the goal of the  number of participating schools based on its conclusion following the 2000  census that the program is most effective and receives the greatest return  on investment in hard-to-count areas and with younger grades  (kindergarten through 8th). Stimulus Funds Provide Additional Money for Outreach to Hard-to-Count Populations, but Planning Is Not Yet Complete

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided $1 billion  in funding for the 2010 Decennial Census. Concluding Observations

The design of the Bureau’s communications campaign appears to be  comprehensive and integrated. The Bureau also plans to track  response rates in 2010 and quickly deploy resources to those areas in need  of a boost. If each of the various components of the communications  campaign is implemented as planned, they will help position the Bureau to  improve participation in the census and address the differential  undercount. While the communications  campaign has made important steps forward, considerable work lies  ahead in moving from the planning to the operational phases. Further,  while money from the economic stimulus package could help augment  marketing of the census, less clear is the extent to which these additional  funds will improve response behavior or which component of the  campaign will yield the best results. Moving forward, to help ensure a more accountable and results-oriented  communications campaign, it will be important for the Bureau to continue  to apply lessons learned from the 2000 Census to the implementation of  the 2010 communications effort, as well as develop and meet specific  performance goals. Moreover, consistent with the American Recovery and  Reinvestment Act, it will be important for the Bureau to first develop a  spending plan for the money it receives under the act, identifying, among  other things, (1) cost estimates of the activities being funded, (2) the  objectives and outcome-related goals of the planned spending, and (3)  how the spending will help achieve those goals.
Why GAO Did This Study

A complete and accurate census is becoming an increasingly daunting task, in part because the nation's population is growing larger, more diverse, and more reluctant to participate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau). When the census misses a person who should have been included, it results in an undercount, and the differential impact on various subpopulations, such as minorities, is particularly problematic. This testimony provides an update on the Bureau's readiness to implement its Integrated Communications Campaign, one of several efforts aimed at reducing the undercount. GAO focused on the campaign's key components: partnerships with local and national organizations, paid advertising and public relations, and Census in Schools (designed to reach parents and guardians through their school-age children). GAO also discusses the extent to which the rollout of the campaign is consistent with factors important for greater accountability and successful results. This testimony is based on previously issued work, ongoing reviews of relevant documents, and interviews with key Bureau officials.

What GAO Found

The Bureau has made notable progress in rolling out key components of its communications campaign; if implemented as planned, the campaign will help position the Bureau to address the undercount. For example, to help promote the census and convince individuals--especially hard-to-count groups--to respond, the Bureau plans to partner with state, local, and tribal governments; religious, community, and social service organizations; and private businesses to secure a more complete count. According to the Bureau, it has thus far secured partnership agreements with more than 10,000 organizations for 2010. The Bureau intends to focus its efforts on hard-to-count communities using data from the 2000 Census, and additional funding made available from the recently enacted economic recovery legislation will enable the Bureau to greatly expand staffing for the partnership program. Future success will depend in part on how well the Bureau communicates with partners and incorporates other best practices from 2000, as well as on how well it monitors the progress of the partnership efforts and whether it uses results-oriented measures so as to deploy resources as needed. The Bureau updated its paid media and public relations strategy from 2000 to meet a changing media environment and plans to focus its efforts on hard-to-count populations. In addition to traditional outlets such as television and radio, the Bureau also intends to employ on line media, such as podcasts and blogs. Currently, the Bureau plans to devote 55 percent of its advertising resources to national media, which provides the broadest reach, and 45 percent to local media, which better targets specific hard-to-count communities. The Bureau has also completed research on factors affecting census participation, which could help the Bureau address the long-standing issue of converting awareness of the census into actual participation. The Census in Schools program is also moving forward. Like the other components of the communications campaign, the Bureau plans to target its efforts to those schools where data from the 2000 Census suggest that the program will have the most impact: school districts in hard-to-count communities and kindergarten through 8th grade. In general, the design of the Bureau's communications campaign appears to be comprehensive, integrated, shaped by the Bureau's experience in the 2000 Census, and targeted to hard-to-count populations. The programs GAO reviewed are in the planning or early implementation phases, and future success will depend on how well the Bureau moves from the design to operational phases. Further, while the extra money the Bureau received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will help augment its outreach efforts, it does not necessarily follow that additional activity will yield higher response rates. Therefore, consistent with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the Bureau will need to identify, among other things, (1) cost estimates of the activities being funded, (2) the objectives and outcome-related goals of the planned spending, and (3) how the spending will help achieve those goals.