Native American and Tribal Media and Outreach

Once each decade, the U.S. Census Bureau attempts to count every person in the United States. The next enumeration will be April 1, 2020 and will be the first to rely heavily on online responses. The California Complete Count – Census 2020 office is coordinating the State’s outreach and communication strategy, which focuses on the hardest-to- count residents. Collaborating with local governments, Tribal Governments, community-based organizations and media, the State is funding efforts that will complement work being done nationally by the U.S. Census Bureau. California leaders have invested $187.2 million toward a statewide outreach and communication campaign. To ensure culturally congruent efforts among Native American Tribal communities throughout California, $3.12 million has been allocated to fund the following:

$316,500 for Tribal Government Contracts
$800,000 for Statewide Community-Based Organizations Contracts
$2 million for media campaign and additional community-based Contracts

The funding is available to all 110 Federally Recognized Tribes. Recently, the California Complete Count – Census 2020 Office (Census Office) entered into a $682,399 contract with NUNA Consulting Group, LLC (NUNA) to provide media services specifically to Tribal Governments and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) urban communities to encourage participation in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 decennial count. The contract with NUNA Consulting Group, LLC was executed on October 2, 2019.

Two key organizations that will be leading tribal efforts are the California Indian Manpower Consortium and California Native Vote Project, which are collaborating with NUNA and are focusing on Census outreach activities to Tribal Governments and AI/AN Communities.

NUNA was selected to provide outreach to California Tribal Governments and AI/AN urban communities due to their long-standing relationship and trust within non-profit Native organizations, Tribal Governments, and Native community-owned businesses nation-wide.

The Census Office recognizes that Tribal Communities have historically been undercounted in the U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial census and has set aside funding specifically for outreach and communication efforts targeting these populations. Founded in 2015, NUNA Consulting Group, LLC is a woman-owned small business headquartered in Los Angeles, California specializing in Native American public affairs driven by quantifiable communications strategy. The NUNA team is proud to create culturally appropriate solutions for our client base – the NUNA Family – who are comprised of national and regional non-profit Native organizations, Tribal governments, Native community-owned businesses, and projects largely impacting tribal nations and Native peoples. The NUNA Team has a combined experience of over 45 years working in Indian Country and work closely with leaders in Indian Law, policy, advocacy, and communications throughout the country on Native-specific issues.

For any questions, please email communications@census.ca.gov.