Sit down with Eli Blackman, the Co-Founder and CEO of Field Day, and learn about his career journey and the importance of community engagement in the workplace. Eli shares how his experience at Elemental, a small startup later acquired by Amazon, inspired him to start Field Day, a program that connects employees with volunteering opportunities at local nonprofits. Find out how volunteering can have a positive impact on your team’s morale, job satisfaction, and company culture.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Eli Blackman is the Co-Founder and CEO of a company called Field Day, a SAS-based, community engagement platform. With a background in mobilizing volunteer groups for his own community, he is passionate about helping people connect with and serve non-profits in their area for maximum community impact.
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A BIG SHIFT
In this episode, Eli Blackman describes his career progression, starting from his time at Elemental, a small startup, to being part of the company’s growth and eventual acquisition by Amazon. During his tenure at Elemental, he witnessed the importance of community engagement and volunteering, which became deeply embedded in the company’s culture. It was an “evolution, not just for us as a company, but for people’s lives as individuals and their personal identities,” Eli explains.
This program had a positive impact on morale, job satisfaction, and employee retention: “At Elemental, we really wanted to give back to the community, to just be involved in the community from an early stage. We didn’t have a lot of resources from a budget financial standpoint, so we just started volunteering together — ad hoc events and using word of mouth to find nonprofits that were around looking for groups of volunteers — and it became something that folks really liked and looked forward to.”
Recognizing the value of this outlet for employees, Eli proposed the idea to Amazon and eventually founded Field Day, aiming to fill the gap in the market for tools that empower companies and employees to participate in volunteer activities together.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Owning the Project
“The structure around the program was that we had what we called an Employee Champion Model. So each nonprofit we had a relationship with had an employee who basically owned that relationship and was in charge of setting up at least one […] or two events with that nonprofit a year. This is a side passion project. [It] gives folks a chance to kind of show up in a different way than in their day-to-day job. You know, like a little bit of leadership experience from coordinating that event.”
Inspired to Help
“It shouldn’t be like a required thing to volunteer. It should be, you get folks to participate, they see how great it is, they see how they’re able to not only connect with folks more deeply within their team but get to know folks on the finance team if they’re in marketing and get to know their families. And all of these benefits that come with getting out in the community that way. That’s different from a happy hour that’s centered around alcohol or purely just talking to somebody. […] You’re getting to meet and learn about nonprofits and the folks leading those nonprofits that identified this need in our community and are actually doing something about it. So it’s super inspirational.”
The Tools to Make an Impact
“But transitioning to Field Day, what we really saw was that these programs can get spun up and maintained and grown at these smaller companies without being a Nike with a corporate social responsibility team or a social impact team. […] And so that’s what we are really trying to unlock is the ability for companies that are of small to medium size to get this into their culture because they’ve had good intentions around it. They know their people want it. They just don’t know how to operate it from an efficiency standpoint.”
The Challenge of Hybrid
“I think 3/4 of US companies are either now hybrid or planning on going hybrid permanently. […] And so with that, for leaders, the number one challenge that they’re facing is being able to relationship-build among their people. From a belonging standpoint, folks are feeling lonelier at work. They have fewer work friendships. They have virtual coffee chats that they’re not really interested in attending — compared to something that’s getting to know someone in real life. […] And the data around volunteerism is really a straight line to belonging.”
A Break from the Computer
“If you look at the things that go into burnout, things like stress, uncertainty, and isolation, that is something that both with hybrid workplaces as well as a potentially tough economic environment, they aren’t going away anytime soon. And so that renewal piece of being able to step away from the computer […] and getting into a different environment, that’s a huge piece of revitalization for folks. And then getting out in the community together builds that sense of meaning and connection, working towards something that has a joint purpose for folks.”
A Boost in Morale
“So 80% of folks that participate in volunteer events see a decrease in stress and report that it improves mental health […] from a broad data standpoint. Those are some of the trends around why it’s beneficial to participate in these events. For us, we’ve kind of dived a little deeper into what our customers are seeing. And so we’ve done some of our own research and data pulling there, especially as folks are looking at connecting teams more in different ways. So we’re comparing volunteering with other types of activities.”
The ROI of Giving Back
“And then 87% [of] participants in the volunteer events say that they believe that their company cares about the community. And so when you think about not just the individual benefits, but what it does from an employer brand standpoint, from potentially a passive recruiting standpoint… especially with the younger generations that are making up a larger percentage of the workforce. […] From a retention standpoint, companies that integrate corporate social responsibility into their culture see a 50% decrease in turnover. And so from a number standpoint, from an ROI standpoint, that is significant cost savings.”
LEARN MORE
Ready to make an impact in your community? Find out how Field Day can help.