The American Community Survey Office (ACSO) is currently conducting a series of related research projects around improving messaging and the ACS mail package among potential ACS participants. This research aims to increase participation rates in the ACS and address concerns about whether the ACS is too intrusive.

This qualitative Key Informant Interview study was designed to gather insights from leaders that use data professionally or work for organizations that conduct outreach to low - income, minority, or immigrant populations. We have organized our findings to address both groups separately. By better understanding how these groups interact with ACS data and with their communities, the Census Bureau can improve outreach and data delivery efforts. This is particularly meaningful for the high - interest populations that have low ACS self - response rates and therefore incur costly follow - up from Census Bureau field representatives in terms of time, money, and effort . The n=109 interview participants span a range of organizations across five key segments .

These interviews produced a substantial amount of information and this report represents a synthesis of closed-ended question analysis, coding on open-ended questions, and a limited selection of verbatim quotes to illustrate key points and perspectives. A supplemental document of Insightful Quotes from Open-Ended Questions (Appendix D) contains a wide select ion of rich verbatim quotes from interview participants.