How United Way has transformed its data strategy, in partnership with Resultant

The following is an edited excerpt of a client story written and published by our partners at Resultant. Read the full story on Resultant’s website.  

In 2017, on the cusp of its 100th anniversary, United Way of Central Indiana found itself at a pivotal crossroads. Over time, the landscape of philanthropy had shifted, and donor expectations evolved. Stakeholders and donors alike placed a greater value on transparency and measurable impact than in years past, and a difficult question emerged: Could United Way prove its investments were changing lives?  

The challenge was as complex as it was urgent. While many community organizations tracked basic service outputs, few had the capacity, tools, or frameworks to measure long-term impact. Data sharing was either fragmented or nonexistent. Privacy concerns loomed large. Meanwhile, donors and funders were eager to understand the return on their contributions—not just in numbers served, but in outcomes achieved.  

United Way’s leadership recognized that understanding impact required more than reporting. It required a new approach entirely: one that prioritized comprehensive analysis of how community organizations utilized funding, where services were helping whom, which people weren’t reached because service gaps existed, and how participants’ lives improved as a direct result of their participation. This approach demanded long-term, cross-sector data collaboration while honoring the trust and relationships at the heart of United Way's work.  

United Way chose Resultant as a data and technology partner for this multi-year transformation that would position United Way as a national model in nonprofit data strategy. Together, the organizations set out to build an adaptable, people-centered solution and implement the training community organizations needed to use it effectively. 

As a result of this work, United Way of Central Indiana has fundamentally changed how it invests donor dollars, evaluates programs and communicates impact. Through its partnership with Resultant, United Way now tracks long-term outcomes like income growth, education attainment, and employment stability to ensure funding goes to what works, not just what’s well-intentioned. 

“We’re using the data to bring a voice to those clients that are being served through our partners,” said Denise Luster, United Way’s chief strategic intelligence and information officer.  

United Way and Resultant created shared metrics across program areas and established a secure internal data warehouse.  

United Way also became the first non-state agency to partner with Indiana’s Management Performance Hub to access anonymized, longitudinal data across education, employment, and public services. This has allowed United Way to use its own secure data warehouse to leverage extensive state-held data and start connecting individual-level records in a privacy-protected way.   

With privacy-protecting tools like one-way hashing, United Way can now measure progress over time, tracking whether families move toward stability and pinpointing where service gaps exist. 

This transformation has allowed United Way to: 

• identify which strategies create lasting impact; 

• allocate funds based on demonstrated outcomes; 

• support continuous improvement with real-time insight; and 

• show donors exactly what their contributions make possible. 

United Way’s data journey hasn’t just improved reporting, it’s transformed how the organization understands its impact, makes decisions, and earns the trust of those who give. For donors and funders, this means greater confidence that every dollar moves the needle. 

Read the full story from Resultant at the button below.