We design the workflows, data systems, and insight tools that empower community-rooted organizations to transform complexity into clarity.
About Understory
Our Mission
We design the workflows, data systems, and insight tools that empower community-rooted organizations to transform complexity into clarity.
Our Values
Clarity — We make complexity legible, so the people who need information can find and act on it.
Rootedness — We work where we live: grounded in place, community, and long relationships.
Capacity — We leave teams more capable than we found them, building skill and understanding into every project.
Sustainability — We build systems and relationships made to last beyond the project.
Our Approach
At Understory, we believe that good systems are living systems — designed to be embedded in your work. Our process begins with listening: getting to know each organization’s people, goals, and rhythms before designing anything new.
We turn complexity into structures that feel intuitive — systems that clarify what matters most, streamline how information flows, and make insight easier to act on. Whether it’s a streamlined workflow, a custom database, or an evaluation framework, everything we build is made to fit the real context of its users.
We’re sector-agnostic by design, drawing on experience across entrepreneurship, STEM innovation, local government, and community development. What unites our projects is a shared goal: to make information not just accurate, but alive — something that strengthens your organization’s capacity, clarity, and confidence.
Our Founder
Hi, I’m Olivia Noel — a systems builder, data strategist, and storyteller helping community-rooted organizations make meaning from complexity.
Before founding Understory, I spent more than five years leading evaluation and data infrastructure work in the nonprofit sector, specializing in entrepreneurship and STEM innovation programs. My background in anthropology informs how I approach data — as something fundamentally human, shaped by stories and context.
Outside of client work, I’m deeply engaged in my rural Vermont community through town planning and local nonprofit initiatives. Understory grew from that same belief in quiet, meaningful change: that powerful systems and stories can take root anywhere.
Work with us
We partner with community-rooted organizations to design systems and stories that help their work flourish.
Reach out to start a conversation about what we could build together.