Community data: Census figures for the counties you serve

Community data shows figures from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) for the counties your organization serves. Each county is shown on its own, beside its state and the United States, with the margin of error the Census Bureau publishes and the Census table each figure comes from. The figures are ACS 5-year estimates, and each study names its period, such as 2020-2024.

Open Community data from Library in the menu, or search for it with Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac). Saving a study needs Essentials or a higher plan, or the Team trial. On Free you can see the figures without saving them.

Start a study

1. Open Community data and choose Start a study.
2. Where you work: choose up to 10 counties, in up to 3 states. GrantCue starts with the counties in your organization profile. To add another, pick its state, then the county.
3. What to include: all the figures are selected to start. Clear any you do not need.
4. Review: check the counties and figures, then enter a Study name and, if you like, a Focus (optional), for example youth programs in the east county. The name starts as the first county followed by community data.
5. Choose Create study. GrantCue gets the figures from the Census Bureau and opens the study. On Free the button is See the figures, and the figures appear on the page without being saved.

If a county in your profile does not match a Census county, Where you work names it and asks you to choose it from the list. GrantCue never guesses a match.

GrantCue gets all of a study's figures in one go. If any request to the Census Bureau fails, nothing is saved or shown, and the page asks you to try again in a few minutes. A figure is never dropped or marked Not available because a request failed.

Connecticut

The Census Bureau now publishes Connecticut's figures for nine planning regions instead of its eight counties, so Connecticut counties in your profile are never matched. Choose the planning regions that cover your service area instead.

What the figures cover

The figures are grouped by topic: Population; Income and poverty; Work; Education; Health and disability; Housing; and Transportation, internet and language. They include median household income, the share of people and of children in poverty, the unemployment rate, the share of residents without health insurance, median rent and the share of households with broadband. What each figure means, on the study, gives each figure's definition, the group it counts (for example households, or adults 25 and older) and its Census table.

Read the tables

A study has one table per topic. Each row is a figure, and the columns are each county, then its state, then the United States. Each area is shown on its own. GrantCue does not combine counties into one figure, average them or rank them.

• ± is the margin of error at 90% confidence. The ACS is a sample survey, so every figure is an estimate. The Census Bureau reads the margin this way: there is about a 90 percent chance that the true value lies between the estimate minus the margin and the estimate plus it. The fewer people surveyed in an area, the wider its margin tends to be.
• Not available means the Census Bureau did not publish the figure for that area, usually because too few people were surveyed. It is never shown as zero.
• A median with a plus sign, such as $250,000+, is at or beyond the highest range the Census Bureau reports. The notes under the table say so.
• Dollar figures are in dollars of the last year of the period, as their definitions say.

GrantCue does not test whether a difference between two areas is statistically significant, and the writer is told not to call one significant. If a difference matters to your case, quote both figures with their margins.

Sources

Sources lists the citation, each request GrantCue made to the Census Bureau (the dataset and the areas) and the date the figures were retrieved. The citation names the survey, the period, the table and the retrieval date, and it goes with the figures into the CSV, the evidence packet and the writer.

Versions and newer data

The figures in a version never change after they are retrieved. Each change makes a new version, and Versions lists them all with the reason and the date.

• Change counties or figures opens the steps again with this version's choices. Finishing them makes a new version.
• When GrantCue adds a newer ACS 5-year release, the study offers to update to it, and the button names the newer period. Updating makes a new version with the newer figures. The earlier version stays as it was.
• Choose an earlier version under Versions to read it. It opens read-only, and Go to the latest version brings you back.

A draft keeps the version it was linked to, so updating a study does not change what the writer uses for that draft. To move a draft to newer figures, use the new version in the draft and remove the old one.

Export and print

• Export CSV downloads one version as a spreadsheet with a row for each figure and area: the estimate, the margin of error, any notes, the Census table and variables, the dataset, the period, the retrieval date and the source citation.
• Evidence packet opens a printable page of one version with its tables, what each figure means, the sources and the citation. Print it or save it as a PDF from your browser.

Export CSV also needs permission to download documents.

Use the figures in a draft

1. On the study, choose Use in a draft.
2. Under Application, pick the draft and choose Use in this draft. If your organization has no applications yet, start one first.

The writer then uses this version's figures and sources when it drafts the statement of need and the executive summary of that application. It is told to use them exactly as given, with their source, and not to change, combine, average or rank them. In the writing workspace a notice reads Community data: (study name) (version n) is supplied to the writer. Remove takes the study off the draft; text already written stays as it is.

A draft can draw on up to three studies. If more are linked, the writer uses the three linked most recently. Linking a study needs grant editing access.

AI output is a draft. Check each figure the writer quotes against the study, with its citation, before you submit.

Plans and access

• Free: build a study and see its figures on the page, marked Your figures (not saved). Nothing is kept. An organization can see 20 previews a day.
• Essentials, Team, Organization and Enterprise, and the 14-day Team trial: saved studies with every version, CSV and evidence packet exports, and the figures handed to the writer.
• When a trial ends and the workspace moves to Free, the studies saved during it stay readable. Exports, new versions and the writer hand-off need Essentials.

Members who can view your organization's documents can view its studies. Creating, changing or archiving a study needs document access; without it the page says to ask an organization admin.

Archive a study

Archive moves a study to Archived studies, and Restore brings it back. Restore an archived study before changing it.