California's Complete Count Efforts
THE DITAS GROUP LLC
Strategic Advisory: Democracy, Civic Engagement & Census Infrastructure
Census 2000, 2010, and 2020
California's Complete Count efforts have evolved over two decades from pioneering state-funded community-based organizing in Census 2000 to a sophisticated, data-driven infrastructure by 2020. The foundational innovations revolved around the integration of an "air game" and a "ground game" that created a "surround sound" based on addressing both the operational and motivational barriers to achieving complete count. The Regional Administrative Community-Based Organizations (ACBOs) and the "trusted messenger" outreach approach were first conceived and implemented in the 2000 "You Count!" campaign, by the leadership of the California Complete Count Office.
This brief focuses on State-funded efforts and does not mention additional efforts funded by philanthropy. Subsequent cycles (2010 and 2020) refined and scaled this original framework. By 2020, California invested roughly $187 million in a comprehensive effort combining micro-targeted, multi-lingual media, regional coordination, and community-driven ground operations, making it the largest state-funded census outreach in U.S. history.
Differences in Each Census Outreach Effort
2000 $24.7M State funding, 55 staff, 18 weeks before Census Day
2010 $1M state funding, 5 staff, 18 months before Census Day
2020 Initial $3M expanded to $187M, 35 staff (hired by 2019), 40 months before Census Day
Census 2000: The Origin of the Model
"California, You Count!" Campaign
$24.7M State funding | 55 staff | 18 weeks before Census Day
Leadership and innovation: In 1999, under Governor Gray Davis, the California Complete Count "California, You Count!" campaign was created and established the regional ACBO model and the concept of "trusted messengers", community voices who could effectively reach hard-to-count (HTC) populations.
Approach: Creating an "air game" and "ground game" concept that focused on addressing the operational and motivational barriers to a complete count, the CCC office divided the state into regional outreach areas, each anchored by contracts with an Administrative Community-Based Organization (ACBO) responsible for sub-granting funds, coordinating local partners, and deploying culturally competent outreach. In addition, to "weave a blanket of coverage", the state used demographic research to identify statewide organizations that could cover areas and populations to provide a surround sound messaging, to account for the intersectionality of the "hardest to reach" communities and populations. The approach considered census data to consider geographic, demographic and socio-cultural factors to plan and deploy outreach and marketing.
Trusted messenger strategy: Recognizing that marginalized and immigrant communities were often skeptical of government, the campaign prioritized funding and training local, trusted messengers: faith leaders, promotores, neighborhood organizers, and ethnic media partners, to deliver accurate census information in-language and culturally competent messaging.
Funding: The state allocated approximately $25 million for outreach and multi-media advertising, an unprecedented amount at the time, with funds flowing directly to ACBOs and local CBOs. This structure established the first scalable "ground game" for census engagement and was complemented by an "air game" funding in language media and advertising.
Impact: California reversed projected undercount trends, especially among Latino and Asian populations, setting a national example of how community networks could improve census participation.
Census 2010: Building on the Foundation
Philanthropy Investments
$1M state funding | 5 staff | 18 months before Census Day
Continuity and evolution: California retained the leadership from Census 2000 to lead outreach under the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, preserving the regional structure and trusted-messenger philosophy.
Approach: With limited State funding, CA Complete Count leadership re-focused the role of the state team to "coordinate, convene and collaborate", effectively serving as the glue between the federal Census Bureau operations and partnership efforts and state/local philanthropic ground outreach efforts. With this effort, the approach of focusing on BOTH motivational and operational barriers was highlighted, setting the foundation upon which preparation for the 2020 Census began. The beginning of GIS mapping technology served as a basis for identifying questionnaire assistance centers (QACs) and places where CBOs could provide assistance and outreach support in the "hardest to enumerate/most likely to be missed" communities.
Funding and partnerships: Due to the global financial crisis of 2008, the state did not have the funds to finance a full outreach and advertising campaign. The state appropriation was under $1M which was limited to funding the top 10 HTC County efforts. On the ground outreach relied heavily on public-philanthropic collaboration. Foundations including The California Endowment, Haas Jr., and others funded hundreds of community organizations to sustain the trusted-messenger work where state dollars were limited. State funding was so severely limited that CA Complete Count staff requested travel funds from the US Census Bureau who was able to fund statewide travel to joint sponsored community convenings and events.
Lessons learned
Trusted messengers remained essential for penetrating low-trust communities.
Regional coordination prevented duplication and ensured coverage across all counties. However, limited funding and delayed disbursements constrained effectiveness, highlighting the need for earlier, larger, and more flexible state investment.
Invest in year-round civic infrastructure, not just a one-time outreach campaign. Community capacity built for census outreach can support voter engagement, redistricting, and public health messaging.
Philanthropic funders (e.g., The California Endowment, Haas Jr., Weingart, and others) organized their own "Census 2010 Funders' Collaborative" to supplement limited state funds.
While this collaboration was crucial, the lack of a formal coordination table sometimes caused duplication, uneven coverage, or confusion over roles.
Lesson: Create a joint governance or data-sharing structure between the State Complete Count Office and philanthropic partners, with clear geographic and demographic coverage maps, joint communication, and shared evaluation tools.
Invest in local messengers first, not last. Provide them with resources, training, and materials tailored to community culture and language.
Centralize high-quality multilingual materials early, and support local adaptation rather than forcing local groups to create their own.
Embed data and evaluation infrastructure into outreach contracts, providing partners with dashboards, mapping tools, and response-rate data so they can pivot in real time.
Philanthropic funds could move faster and take risks the state could not, piloting social media campaigns, pop-up census centers, and late-stage mobilization in low-response tracts.
Pair public dollars (for scale and accountability) with philanthropic dollars (for agility and experimentation). Each brings unique value to outreach ecosystems.
Integrate media buys with local ground game, ensuring messaging timing, visuals, and languages align with what trusted messengers are using in the field.
Institutionalize leadership roles and knowledge retention between census cycles (e.g., a standing office or advisory body).
Both the state and philanthropy recognized that traditional measures of "hard-to-count" did not fully capture communities facing systemic barriers (e.g., formerly incarcerated populations, undocumented residents, renters, rural farmworkers).
Define HTC populations with an equity lens, incorporating socioeconomic and cultural barriers, not just statistical undercounts.
Census 2020: Scaling the Ground Game
Integrating Technology and Data-Intensive Planning
Original start: 40 months before Census Day, 1 staff | 10 months prior: 35 staff | Total funding: $187M
Continuity: California retained the leadership from Census 2000 and 2010 to lead strategic development of a statewide approach. This time, CA leadership had been serving on the US Census Bureau's National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations and had an inside look at the "operations/operational barriers" that the US Census Bureau posed for counting all Californians.
Evolution and capacity building: This operational view along with the lessons learned from the 2 previous decennial cycles laid a strong foundation for the CA Complete Count 2020 Census Campaign. In 2017, hired into the CA Department of Finance Demographic Research Unit, the structure for the 2020 efforts was re-established. Early in 2017, strategic conversations involved philanthropy and advocacy started (TCE, CA Advancement Project, NALEO) and coordination began much earlier. The theme of SOCIAL MOVEMENT BUILDING and capacity building served as fundamental principles that had not been considered in previous state-funded decennial efforts.
Early challenges and planning: Starting much earlier, strategic planning ensued with 1 State staffer collaborating with philanthropic, civil society organizations; however, in 2017 funding of $7M was proposed for LUCA incentives and not allocated for strategic outreach efforts. CPAN and others successfully advocated to add $3M during the May Revise which funded initial strategic efforts including:
Census Readiness Convenings (covering 25 areas across the state, utilizing the regions identified by the DOF DRU), resulting in early identification of potential ACBO leads in each region
Teacher based development of the "Count Me In" Social Science Curriculum for 5th, 8th, 11th and 12th graders
Initial requirements definition for the GIS-Mapping tool: StateWide Outreach and Rapid Deployment (SwORD)
Early message testing coordination
Early engagement and convenings: Early meetings with key philanthropy and the League of California Community Foundations resulted in support for the DOF-DRU identified regions. The Census Readiness Convenings across the state served multiple purposes. With support from key legislative staff, local foundations and CBOs came together to begin assessing each region's "readiness" for Census and the local organizing and planning began. RESULT: Because of these early convenings when the state did not yet have funding, the regions were able to self-identify their potential LEAD ACBOs who would apply for the State CONTRACT. 8 out of the 10 Regions had negotiated which organization would step forward should the State receive funding. This saved immense time in the state process of getting competitive contracts set up and funding flowing to CBOs.
Institutionalization of the ACBO and statewide sector funding: Even without state funding California fully institutionalized the regional ACBO and trusted-messenger framework as the central operating model of its 2020 campaign and included the statewide sector/intersectional. The state had a funding formula established so that each of 10 regions (covering all 58 counties) contract dollar amounts were ready for competitive bidding. Due to state constraints, the funding was set aside for CONTRACTS to ACBOs as the state did not have "GRANT" authority. Once the contract was awarded to the regional ACBO, they were responsible for sub-granting, coalition management, and real-time response coordination with the state. In addition, to once again "weave a blanket of coverage", sectoral and intersectional demographic factors were identified and statewide organizations were solicited to create additional outreach approaches.
Funding: Backed by the Legislature and Governor Newsom, and with tremendous support from philanthropy and CPAN, the state allocated a total of approximately $187 million, the largest state investment in census outreach nationwide. Noting that the full amount of funding did not come available until late 2019.
Safeguarding the state's investment: Due to ongoing federal administration challenges during the 2020 cycle, the California Complete Count Office took the unprecedented step of investing in its own independent post-enumeration survey. The state funded the RAND Corporation to conduct an independent assessment called the 2020 California Neighborhoods Count (CNC). The CNC was the first-ever independent, survey-based enumeration to directly assess the accuracy of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 population and housing unit counts for a subset of California census blocks. It was conducted by RAND researchers under the California Department of Finance's Complete Count Census 2020 program, in response to long-standing concerns about possible undercounts. This investment reflected California's commitment not only to outreach, but to verification: ensuring that the communities the state worked so hard to count were actually counted correctly.
Ground game in action:
Data, SwORD and Rapid Response: For the first time, using the US Census Bureau's available response data, the state was able to deploy near real-time response for those areas that were lagging behind in their self-response rates.
Rapid redeployment of efforts: Trusted messengers conducted door-to-door canvassing, phone/text banking, and digital outreach in areas with initial low self-response rates.
ACBOs established assistance centers, deployed rapid-response teams to low-response tracts, and coordinated data feedback loops with the state office.
COVID-19 disruptions were mitigated by leveraging these community networks to adapt quickly to digital and socially distanced outreach.
Results: California achieved one of the highest self-response rates in the nation, outperforming projections for many HTC areas. Evaluations credited this success to the deep community trust built through two decades of ACBO infrastructure and messaging consistency.
Key Takeaways Across 2000 to 2020
1. Innovation began in 2000: The "California, You Count!" campaign introduced the ACBO structure and trusted-messenger concept, now national best practices.
2. Sustained evolution: Each subsequent census refined and scaled the model, proving that community trust, regional coordination, and consistent investment yield results.
3. Funding alignment is critical: Adequate, early, and flexible funding, especially for ACBOs and CBOs, determines success more than any single tactic.
4. Institutional legacy: California's three-cycle evolution created a permanent, reusable civic-engagement infrastructure that can now support voter outreach, redistricting education, and other civic participation goals.
5. Cross-sectoral coordination: Key to bringing sustainable results, avoiding duplication and creating innovative approaches.
6. Operational and motivational barriers must be addressed: Requiring not just "outreach/marketing" experts but those with institutional and federal operational expertise involved in early strategy development.
Prepared by: Ditas Katague, The Ditas Group LLC
Strategic Advisory: Democracy, Civic Engagement & Census Infrastructure
