GRANTING MATTERS
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY AND … WHERE The usefulness of tracking your clients by census tract
Whether it be journalism, academic research,
considered “good enough.” Now that we see
investigations or old-fashioned problem-
the difference a few miles can make, it is not
solving, the 5W’s – who, what, where, when and
effective to combine suburban neighborhoods
why – have become the standard expectation
with high-need urban tracts that, while sharing
for evaluating and communicating a situation.
a zip code, appear worlds apart in terms of
Most nonprofits across the nation can rely on
their needs and assets. Fortunately, the federal
their passion and expertise to articulate who
government now offers updated technology to
they serve, what they add to those people’s
help organizations address this challenge.
lives, when they do it and why. But many often struggle with articulating “where” they make a
The U.S. Census Geocoder website (https://
difference geographically.
geocoding.geo.census.gov/) has been revamped to allow organizations to geocode up to
The importance of this distinction locally
10,000 addresses at once. This enables them to
became most apparent after a national report
quickly convert their long address lists into an
ranked Syracuse as the worst in the nation
easy-to-summarize dataset that groups people
for concentrated poverty among certain
by neighborhoods. Furthermore, when they
racial groups. This study found that our
look at census data showing how many people
poverty numbers are worse in very specific
are living in poverty, are unemployed or simply
concentrated geographies, but not within the
fall into a certain age group within a census
entire city. This infamy has caused funders,
tract neighborhood, they will also be able to
nonprofit directors and community leaders to
say how many people they serve in that same
wonder whether the funding and resources
region.
they are devoting to address critical community issues are actually making it to the highest need
With this tool at our community’s disposal it
neighborhoods. Likewise, it has made it more
won’t be long before sharing “where” we serve
important for those implementing programs
is just as common and precise as our efforts to
on the front lines to have better information
talk about who, when, why and how we serve
regarding whether their outreach efforts are
them.
actually penetrating those key areas. In the past, organizations relied on zip codes to analyze their work but this broad measure was simply a rough approximation that was
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CENTRAL NEW YORK COMMUNIT Y FOUNDATION
