James Donadio

James Donadio is the ERG and Community Engagement Leader at Sodexo, where he oversees the company's Employee Business Resource Group (EBRG) network. He is known for building the internal case, backed by his own program's data, that ERGs belong in the same conversation as sales, retention, and client strategy rather than off to the side as a nice-to-have.

Putting the Business Back in ERGs

Sodexo has run its EBRGs for close to 25 years, and Donadio has led the program's community engagement strategy since 2022. His central move has been separating two numbers that often get lumped together: membership and engagement. By tracking who actually shows up rather than who is enrolled, his team found that community engagement events consistently pull in people who are not yet EBRG members, most of whom join within a week of attending. He has built that insight into partnerships with organizations like the American Cancer Society and Best Buddies, low-commitment volunteer formats such as no-agenda coffee meetups, and client-facing community events that have factored into contract renewals.

Topics James speaks on

• Making the business case for ERGs
• Separating membership from engagement
• Zero-cost, high-reach volunteer partnerships
• Turning community programs into client strategy
• Building executive buy-in over the long term

Sessions with Achieve

Donadio joined an Achieve Leadership Network Mastermind to unpack how his team turned Sodexo's EBRG program into a measurable business strategy, covered in Turning Employee Resource Groups Into a Business Strategy.

Connect

• James Donadio on LinkedIn
• Sodexo
• Read Donadio's Achieve session recap

Curious how a program like Sodexo's EBRG network gets built and defended with real numbers? Learn more about the Achieve Leadership Network.