Brooklyn Get Out the Count Grants

Governor Cuomo has launched a $60 million statewide campaign to ensure every New Yorker is counted. The Department of State, the Department of Labor, and Empire State Development are jointly working with local governments on their outreach plans for hard-to-reach communities. Counties in turn are working with not-for-profits that are already connected with the hard-to-count populations. 

Brooklyn Community Foundation has partnered with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to distribute this funding to prequalified not-for-profits in Kings County through the Brooklyn GOTC Grant program.

January 23, 2020: New York State Pre-Qualification Process Opens

January 31, 2020: Brooklyn Get Out the Count Grants Application Opens

February 10, 2020: Brooklyn Get Out the Count Grants Application Webinar

February 14, 2020: Brooklyn Get Out the Count Grants Applications Due

March 2, 2020: Kings County Proposal Due to New York State

Mid-Late March 2020: Funding Decisions Announced, Grants Awarded

All not-for-profits (NFPs) interested in receiving funds from their county for census outreach in hard-to-reach communities must be pre-qualified prior to partnering with any county. 

The pre-qualification process entails each NFP submitting an application through the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) starting on January 23rd, 2020. 

Once the State has approved a CFA, the NFP will be added to a list that the State is sharing with the counties and posted publicly on the State's Census website. The list of eligible NFPs will be updated regularly. Participating counties and cities will be able to include any of the pre-qualified NFPs in their census outreach plans.

All questions regarding the census process for not-for-profits may be directed to NFPqualification@census2020grant.ny.gov.

Technical questions about the Consolidated Funding Application system can be directed to CFA-Tech@ny.gov.  

Stream the recording of our February 10th application webinar here.

Organizations must complete the Brooklyn Get Out the Count online application by Friday, February 14th at 11:59PM. 

***Only complete this application AFTER submitting your New York State application for pre-qualification at https://www.ny.gov/2020-census/census-2020-complete-count-outreach-grants-not-profits.

1. Launch the online application at https://brooklyncommunityfoundation.submittable.com/submit. 
2. Create an Account: Create a Submittable user account. Your application will always be connected to your account.
3. ​​Once you have set up your account, you can begin filling out the Online Application Form.​
   • The form periodically saves to your account. However, we highly encourage you to use the "Save Draft" button at the bottom of the form before exiting. Each time you save, the latest draft will be kept for 21 days.
   • We also recommend keeping your responses in a document offline and plugging them into the Online Application Form from there.

• Only work not funded by other census Get Out the Count (GOTC) funding sources will be considered (e.g., New York City Complete Count Fund, New York State Census Equity Fund, Robin Hood Foundation). The activities may be the similar, but the beneficiaries must be different.
• Grant sizes will range $5,000-$50,000
• Grant request cannot exceed 20% of 2020 operating budget

Applicants must download and submit the following proposed census activities worksheet at http://bcfny.org/sites/default/files/proposed_census_activities_application_template.csv.

Approved activities include:

1. Developing and placement of advertising (paid, social media, etc.)
2. Assisting HTC residents in filling out enumeration form
3. Developing outreach materials
4. Distributing literature
5. Door-to-door conversations
6. Hosting informational sessions or kiosks about the Census
7. Hosting pop-up or semi-permanent Census completion kiosks​

Federal Census guidance on how partners can help individuals fill out the Census.

The following activities may not be proposed:

1. The purchase, lease, or rental of any equipment or operational software
2. Political activities of any kind
3. Electoral activities of any kind
4. The acquisition of voter registration data, voter profiles or similar programs or data commonly used in political campaigns
5. Awards of cash, gift cards, trophies or the like
6. Purchase, lease, and/or rental of, computers, mobile computing devices such as I-Pads, tablets etc., cellular telephones and related devices that exceed $500 per item and are more than $2,500 in aggregate
7. Purchase of t-shirts, buttons, hats, or similar promotional merchandise
8. Audit services
9. Acquisition, construction, or renovation of buildings or other real estate
10. Entertainment
11. Religious activity
12. Alcohol
13. Expenses incurred prior to March 10, 2020 or ESD Award letter date whichever sooner
14. Costs of organized fund raising
15. Interest, taxes and penalties
16. Any other cost incurred in violation of the terms of the Grant Disbursement Agreement

​

All applications and awards are beholden to the guidelines set forth by NY State at https://www.ny.gov/2020-census/census-2020-complete-count-outreach-grants-not-profits, including:

1. Incorporation as a Not-for-Profit 501(c)(3) continuously for at least the last year
2. Registration and up to date with all filings with the New York State Office of the Attorney General’s Charities Bureau
3. Registration and up to date with the New York State Comptroller’s VendRep System
4. No bar from contracting with the State of New York or the federal government during the last five years
5. Member or active participant in local complete count committee, or other census related efforts
6. Contracted with the State of New York within the past five years
7. Contracted with the county where it proposes to provide census services within the past five years
8. Provision of direct services in the communities where NFP expects to work on this initiative
9. Cultural competency to have meaningful engagement with community where it expects to work on this initiative
10. Previous engagement in census outreach services
11. Ability to speak, read, and write in relevant languages
12. Experience with other community engagement/volunteer-driven efforts
13. Current work with hard-to-count populations
14. Prequalification in Grants Gateway

For any questions regarding Brooklyn GOTC Grant applications, email census@brooklyncommunityfoundation.org. 

Additional Resources:

• New York Counts 2020. Biweekly emails with resources and events. Website also includes Guide to Organizing for 2020 Census Toolkit.
• FCCP website with toolkits
• The following organizations received NYC discretionary funding for census planning and may have toolkits and other resources available on their website:
  • Association for a Better New York (ABNY), 
  • Asian American Federation,
  • Asian Americans for Equality,
  • Brooklyn NAACP,
  • Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, 
  • Chinese-American Planning Council, 
  • Community Resource Exchange,
  • FPWA, 
  • Hester Street, 
  • Hispanic Federation,
  • Make the Road — New York, 
  • New York Immigration Coalition, 
  • NALEO Educational Fund,
  • United Neighborhood House, 
  • The United Way of New York City