CASE STUDY | THE UNITED WAY
UNITED WAY: ENGAGING COMMUNITY
STAKEHOLDERS IN DATA
Most people in Central Indiana support
quality education, but the definition of
quality can be elusive. Working with SAVI,
United Way of Central Indiana is defining
quality education in the community and
set benchmarks to monitor progress. It
also is integrating SAVI into its data plan
even more robustly than in the past.
“As we started surveying people
about what the word ‘education’ means to
them, as you might expect most people
assumed K-12 education,” explained
Demetrius Glover, Vice President
of Strategic Information at United
Way. “However, we also define early
4
childhood—birth to five—as education,
especially through quality childcare.”
Through its own research paired with
SAVI data, UWCI measures its education
goals against three main objectives: to
have 80 percent of childcare centers
reach high quality (levels 3 or 4 by the
Paths to QUALITY rating system); 90
percent of third graders to read at grade
level; and 90 percent of high school
students to graduate on time.
Of the 91 nonprofits United Way funds
in greater Indianapolis, 40 are involved
in education. In the case of education,
corporations frequently