Use Census Narrative Profiles to Strengthen Grant Proposal's Statement of Need

Comments

Discussion content should not be viewed as an endorsement of the views of Tulsa City County Library. TCCL reserves the right to edit or refuse to post any material, in whole or in part, that does not meet these guidelines. TCCL reserves the right to make changes to the guidelines at any time.

See the Comment Guidelines for more information.

Submitted by Alyssa on Wed, 03/20/2013 - 1:45pm

American FactFinder, a data tool from the United States Census Bureau, is a rich source of population, housing, economic and geographic information that can be used to strengthen your grant proposal's statement of need.

In particular, the narrative profile report offers a "canned" explanation of Census data that can be easily integrated into your report. For example, in the narrative profile of Tulsa County, you not only get a chart that visually represents educational attainment of residents, but you also get this narrative explanation:

"In 2011, 26 percent of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 30 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher. Eleven percent were dropouts; they were not enrolled in school and had not graduated from high school."

To access the narrative profile for your targeted community:

1. Visit American FactFinder.
2. Go to "Advanced Search."

3. In the "Topic or Table" search box (left side) enter: NP01. In the "State, County, or Place" search box enter your location of choice.

4. From the results, select your desired report.

For more information on how to incorporate Census data into your grant proposals, check out these resources:

Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries - How to Use Census Data
Montana Nonprofit Association - Using Census Data in Grant Writing
Texas State Data Center - Using Census Data in Grant Writing & Community Needs Assessment (PDF presentation) (Recorded Webinar)

File(s):