About The Ditas Group
OUR MISSION
The Ditas Group provides the strategic architecture that turns democratic commitment into coordinated action, advising government, philanthropy, and the private sector on democracy strengthening, voter engagement, and Census investment.
OUR VISION
An America where participation in democracy is not determined by zip code, language, or how long a community has been counted, built by the organizations with the will to invest and the strategy to make it matter.
DITAS KATAGUE
Ditas is a democracy strategist and institutional leader with 25+ years building the trusted-messenger infrastructure that connects American institutions to the communities they serve. She is the creator of the trusted-messenger ecosystem model, first piloted in California in 1999 and later scaled to national federal operations, a framework now cited as a breakthrough approach to community-driven communications and civic trust-building.
Her practice centers on three interconnected priorities: democracy strengthening, voter education and engagement, and outreach to vulnerable and historically underserved communities. She brings to this work a practitioner's understanding of why trusted messengers, the community-rooted voices that institutions cannot replicate on their own, are the single most effective tool for closing the gap between civic systems and the people those systems are meant to serve.
Ditas is Founder and CEO of The Ditas Group, LLC, where she serves as a strategic architect for government agencies, philanthropic institutions, and civic-sector organizations navigating complex challenges at the intersection of public trust, data, and democratic participation. Her clients include the California Democracy Partnership, and she is a primary architect of California's proposed VOICES (Voter Outreach Information & Corps for Election Safety) program, which would build a statewide trusted-messenger network, an Election Administration Fellowship, and a multi-county Election Safety Corps.
What sets Ditas apart is a depth of census and civic data experience that spans every level of American government, a combination no other practitioner in the country holds. She co-created California's first comprehensive hard-to-count outreach program in 1999, then served as Director of California's Complete Count Census operations for 2000, 2010, and 2020, growing the state program from $3M to a $187M initiative that achieved a 69.6% self-response rate against an expected 55%, driving 2.2 million responses in historically undercounted communities. She then scaled that model nationally as a presidential appointee at the U.S. Census Bureau, where she built corporate, philanthropic, and community coalitions that brought new private-sector partners into civic engagement infrastructure. That arc, from local community organizer to state program director to federal institutional leader, makes her the go-to strategic advisor for any organization seeking to understand its role and investment in Census 2030. Ditas is currently advising Philanthropy California on Census 2030 framework development, and is actively advising additional clients on how to position and invest ahead of the decade's most significant civic data event.
She has been appointed by the President of the United States and three California Governors to lead institutions with budgets up to $267M and teams of 200+, including Associate Director for Communications & Engagement at the U.S. Census Bureau, Director of California Complete Count Census 2020, and Chief of Staff to a CPUC Commissioner. Since 2021, she has advised the California Secretary of State on voter education and outreach strategy across general and special elections.
A first-generation Filipino-American, Ditas holds an MPA from USC and a BA from UC Berkeley, and is a certified yoga, meditation, and sound healing practitioner. She is also a large-format painter and artist whose work can be found at www.grievingthruglee.com.
Ditas currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the Center for Inclusive Democracy and as a Founding Board Member of By the People, for the People, a proposed nonpartisan civics education and democracy-strengthening initiative. She is a former Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations at the U.S. Census Bureau, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and has served on the Advisory Board of the USC Sacramento Center, Sol Price School of Public Policy, since 1999.
We’ve Worked With
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California Democracy Partnership
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Philanthropy CA
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By the People, for the People
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Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund
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Catalyst California
Experience
National Advisory Board Member
Center For Inclusive Democracy
Serving on the National Advisory Board of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research organization advancing voter engagement, election administration and representation across the country. CID recently transitioned to an independent national organization after 16 years of work through UC Davis and USC, now partnered with Sierra Health Foundation. The Center's research, data tools and educational programs support policymakers, election officials and community advocates working to build a more inclusive democracy.
Associate Director for Communications & Engagement
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington DC
A $1.4B governmental organization the largest national statistical data agency, and executes the largest civilian mobilization costing over $13.7B during decennial operations.
Appointed by the President and Secretary of Commerce, served as CMO and Chief Government, Stakeholder, and Media Relations. Led all communications, external affairs, website, data visualization, news stories/releases, data dissemination, intergovernmental & Congressional affairs. Oversee $50M budget and a team of 200 people comprising communication professionals, digital media, public education, congressional and external affairs, writers/editors, and project managers.
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Director
California Complete Count Census 2020
Sacramento, California
A $187M governmental organization supporting the 2020 Census designed to launch quickly, deploy, and close post-census, serving the most populous state in the US and third by geographic size.
Appointed by the Governor, as CEO, to lead statewide census communication & outreach efforts. Led 50 employees and worked closely with over 15 foundations and 300 community-based organizations. Focused on communication, multi-lingual marketing campaigns, and direct outreach. Developed and deployed the “trusted messenger” outreach approach which became a national model.
“You can't fact-check your way out of a trust deficit”
-Ditas Katague
“Ditas is one of those rare people who can see the big picture and figure out how to make it happen. She’s smart, strategic, experienced, and incredibly effective. She knows how to bring together people from government, nonprofits, media, academia, and other sectors, develop a plan they believe in, and turn that plan into action. She doesn’t just develop good strategies. She knows how to build the support and partnerships needed to implement them and win.”
Raúl Macías Program Director, Democracy, Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
“Ditas was appointed to head of the Communications Directorate at the Census Bureau based on her extensive experience in motivating communities across California to participate in the 2020, 2010 and 2000 Census. She conceived California's trusted messenger approach in 2000, then built and scaled it by bringing communities together in true partnerships. We were so impressed that the Bureau used that framework to build a strategy for the upcoming 2030 Census. Ditas taught us that trust isn't something a federal agency can manufacture. It has to be nurtured within communities via authenticity and living one’s values. Only then are communities willing to engage and promote participation in the census.”
Rob Santos, 26th Director, US Census Bureau
“Ditas has the unique quality of extensive experience working within government while simultaneously understanding how to partner with communities. She operates with integrity, respect, and a collaborative spirit, which are bedrocks for any good community partnership.”
Dr. John Dobard, VP Strategy & Policy, Catalyst CA
Explore All Services
The Ditas Group advises and architects. Our value is in the strategy, the framework, and the relationships that make implementation possible. We work with government agencies, philanthropic institutions, and civic-sector and private-sector organizations that need to reach the people civic systems most often miss.
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For organizations seeking to invest in Census 2030, we provide the strategic counsel no one else can: what the landscape looks like, where the gaps are, how to structure public-private partnerships, what you should be doing right now, and how to measure impact. We are currently advising Philanthropy California on Census 2030 framework development and are available to advise additional government, philanthropic, corporate, and advocacy coalition clients.
We take the high-level road maps to 2030 and help you develop your specific itinerary, helping foundations, advocates, and government officials understand what they should be doing, when, and how to prepare for the 2030 Census.
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We design the community-rooted outreach infrastructure that gets results where traditional communications fail. That includes identifying the right messenger networks, building the partnership architecture, and creating the engagement logic that connects institutional goals to community trust.
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We build the tables that need to exist and facilitate the relationships that make them productive. This includes cross-sector coalition design, intergovernmental coordination, and public-private partnership strategy.
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We deliver the tools and training organizations need to move from transactional outreach to durable engagement, including our signature framework, the Layered Convening Model. The model recognizes that different stakeholders need to be engaged differently, at different levels, through different relationships, and in a deliberate sequence that builds trust before it asks for buy-in. We design the full engagement architecture: who needs to be at what table, in what order, with what purpose, and how those conversations connect to decisions.
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We help organizations define their role, goals, and theory of change for complex civic engagement efforts, from statewide voter education campaigns to multi-year census investment strategies. We ask the hard questions about where resources should go and why, and build the frameworks that keep coalitions aligned over time.