by Hannah Barrett, on July 23, 2025
A Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) on a Mission
Inclusiv is the leading network of credit unions with a primary mission of promoting community development and financial inclusion. They are a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), the only CDFI exclusively dedicated to investing in the community development credit union movement.
Challenges in Data Collection & Analysis
Inclusiv faced significant challenges in data collection, analysis, and user experience with their previously built platform:
- Big Data: Measuring the financial impact of credit unions in disadvantaged communities required analyzing vast amounts of data that went beyond traditional financial performance metrics.
- Usability: Their initial data analytics platform had usability issues, including a complicated sign-in process and technical barriers that made it difficult for credit unions to access and use the system.
- Scalability: The previous platform lacked flexibility, limiting Inclusiv’s ability to scale the solution for multiple programs beyond the CDFI program.
- Efficiency: Data submission processes were inefficient, requiring significant staff intervention to manage uploads and generate reports for credit unions.
Inclusiv's Search For a Data Analytics Partner
To assess and improve the impact of credit unions, Inclusiv needed a robust data analytics platform capable of managing large-scale financial data while providing real-time insights.
Arkatechture had a good working knowledge of the credit union field, which was very important for Inclusiv to work with a vendor that understood the industry. ” -Peter Rubenstein, VP Systems Operations & Improvement at Inclusiv
Arkatechture, with its strong credit union expertise and Arkalytics platform, was selected to develop the new Financial Inclusion Data Analytics Platform (FIDAP) to help all credit unions gain insight into their lending performance and impact, and to assist CDFI credit unions with the analytical components of CDFI compliance requirements. The newly built platform provided Inclusiv with:
- Enhanced User Experience: The new platform eliminated previous accessibility issues, making it easier for credit unions to log in, upload data, and generate reports.
- Modernized Technology Stack: The system leverages Snowflake for scalable data management, Tableau for dynamic reporting, and Auth0 for flexible user authentication.
- Automated Data Validation: A new real-time error reporting system, developed in collaboration with an enterprise software development company, improved data quality by identifying and correcting errors at the time of upload.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Unlike the previous iteration, FIDAP was designed to accommodate multiple financial programs, ensuring long-term adaptability.
- Improved User Management: Credit unions can now manage their own users and grant access to consultants, addressing a major limitation of the previous system.
The Results of Inclusiv's Enhanced FIDAP
- Over 100 credit unions onboarded; a significant improvement in access to self-service data analytics.
- The ability for credit unions to upload data at their own pace, ensuring real-time visibility into their lending impact.
- Helping nearly 200 credit unions analyze nearly 850,000 loans, representing approximately $18.2 billion in lending activity
- Improved compliance reporting, with a critical milestone being when credit unions will use the system to generate certification reports for federal agencies
Learn more about this project and Inclusiv's data journey in the full case study!
