Advocate for a Culture Where Black Professionals are Heard, Celebrated, and Elevated — Jerel Robinson

Why Black ERGs need structure, not just a mission statement

Black employees make up roughly 13% of the U.S. population but hold just 1.6% of Fortune 500 CEO positions. That gap does not reflect a shortage of talent. It reflects a shortage of access, sponsorship, and the organizational systems that give Black professionals a real path forward.

Employee Resource Groups were designed, in part, to change that from the inside. But not all ERGs do it. The ones that actually move the needle share common traits: a specific mission, genuine executive backing, programming tied to development, and leaders who treat ERG work as a real business function.

Jerel Robinson built one of those ERGs. As Director of North America Sales at Eventbrite, he co-founded Black & Brite within Eventbrite's Briteling Belonging Group (BBG) program. What started as a social group in the San Francisco office became a vehicle for company-wide policy change, mentorship programs, and real cultural advocacy. Robinson has since moved on and now works as an independent sales and GTM consultant.

His conversation with AllVoices, originally published in 2021, remains one of the most practical takes on what ERG leadership actually looks like when it is working.

Jerel Robinson on building Black & Brite at Eventbrite

Robinson spoke with AllVoices about his path into ERG leadership, how he develops individual contributors, and what companies get wrong about supporting these programs.

What prepared you most for your director role?

Robinson's background was deliberately broad. He was "voluntold" into operational and financial projects far outside his core sales function, which built exactly the cross-functional muscle ERG leadership requires.

I've been privileged to work closely with some extremely talented people across my career and leaders that challenged me. I also found myself "voluntold" to own some operational and financial projects, which required collaboration with partners outside of my core role. These collective experiences have shaped my career path and helped me build a formula for consistent success.

The pattern here: being stretched beyond your defined lane is what ERG leadership replicates. Members who run ERG events, mentor peers, and contribute to decisions become more visible and more capable than peers who stay narrowly focused on their job descriptions alone. That visibility matters in organizations where intersectionality shapes who gets seen and who gets promoted.

How do you prepare individual contributors for management?

Robinson's framework starts with specificity: define what good leadership looks like before trying to develop it. Then match the person to real tasks that build the skills they need.

The most important item is for the leader to clearly define the specific behaviors and competencies needed in a successful leader. Next, the leader and the individual contributor can assess their strengths and opportunities before building a development plan. As part of the development, the leader can delegate specific tasks to help refine their skills. For example, many of our individual contributors help run team meetings, best practice sessions, training for new hires, and we ask for their feedback as we're evaluating important business decisions. I've learned that these activities not only help develop a plethora of skills but foster a culture of consistent feedback and drive strong employee engagement.

ERG leadership is one of the most underused development paths in corporate America. When Black employees run programs, mentor others, and shape organizational decisions, they build skills in public, which creates the visibility that opens doors.

How did you come to lead Black & Brite?

Robinson's path was gradual and community-driven, not a formal application. It is how many of the strongest ERG leaders find themselves in the role.

Transparently the journey found me. Eventbrite created the Briteling Belonging Group (BBG) program in 2019 and that was the origin of Black & Brite. At the time, there was a grassroots movement in our San Francisco office and I wanted to connect and engage with more Black employees. We started as more of a social group meeting up as we traveled to different offices and hosted panels during Black History Month. We saw the events taking place during the summer of 2020 and decided to be more than a social group, but to drive change within our company and community. As we continued to organize, I found myself regularly on calls with 3 other members to determine important BBG decisions and outcomes, which was the genesis of our core leadership group.

For HR leaders, this evolution from social to strategic is worth paying attention to. An ERG that starts with informal connection and sharpens around a specific moment tends to be more durable than one launched with a formal charter but no real community behind it.

What are the goals of Black & Brite?

Robinson's answer is a model for any ERG writing its mission statement: specific, action-oriented, and clear about what membership actually means.

Our vision is to be the destination where Black professionals want to work. Our mission is to elevate Black Britelings through intentional individual and community development. We want to advocate for a culture where Black professionals are heard, celebrated, and elevated.

Notice that the goal is not to celebrate Black culture for a month. It is to change the organizational culture itself so that Black professionals have the access, visibility, and development they deserve. That distinction separates ERGs that create change from ERGs that create programming. See the questions that help teams build an inclusive culture for a practical complement to this kind of mission work.

What did Black & Brite accomplish in its first full year?

The summer of 2020 accelerated ERG work that had been building slowly. Robinson describes how Black & Brite channeled that moment into something structural.

In light of the murder of George Floyd, there was a swift movement across the country in which companies reflected on their DEI practices. Similar to others, we were galvanized by this movement and spent hours, meeting with our executive staff. Those conversations helped to cultivate our company's DEI commitments, which are shared on our careers page. Additionally, our CHRO announced Juneteenth as a company holiday, observed globally.

A company-wide policy change, Juneteenth as a global holiday, driven by ERG advocacy. That is the kind of outcome that justifies investment in these programs. The following year brought a full Black History Month program including a keynote from Dr. Angela Davis moderated by a BBG leader. The back half of 2021 shifted to launching mentorship and scholarship programs. Mature ERGs do not just program events. They build ladders.

How does Eventbrite recognize and compensate ERG leaders?

Robinson is honest about the gap between how much ERG leaders contribute and what most companies pay them. It is one of the most important structural questions any HR team with an ERG program needs to answer directly.

Our ERG is regularly celebrated and supported. Our CEO & executives champion our activities regularly at company meetings, attend our activities, and provide us with a budget to support our needs. Similar to most companies, our ERG leadership positions are volunteer-based and not financially compensated. Alternatively, there are secondary and tertiary benefits through the engagement. I find the experience provides a platform to build relationships with others across the company, along with skills contributing to my personal development. To help alleviate the stress, we try to disperse our responsibilities across the group to make sure one individual isn't overloaded. I'm favorable to this compensation topic gaining more discussion as many leaders are performing these leadership duties in addition to their core responsibilities, which is most likely prioritized after hours. As you look across most companies, it will be difficult to find any component that doesn't have the fingerprints of the ERG program over it. It's essential to recruiting, company culture, and employee engagement.

ERGs shape recruiting, culture, and engagement, three areas that directly affect business performance, and most of the people doing that work are doing it unpaid, in the margins of their actual job. Building a culture of listening at the organizational level means taking ERG labor seriously enough to resource it properly.

What advice do you have for people starting an ERG?

Don't feel like you have to wait for someone else to raise their hand to get started. One of our legacy leaders told me that if you're looking around for a leader and no one has raised their hand, it's probably you. Create your vision, mission, and goals as that will be your Polaris and will help you make important decisions. If you can acquire an executive sponsor, I highly recommend it. Our sponsor provides us with guidance when needed and helps champion our efforts across the business.

Executive sponsorship is not optional. ERGs without one operate in isolation, which limits their funding, visibility, and ability to drive policy change. The sponsor is what turns a group into a program with real organizational credibility.

What is your call to action for company leaders?

Acknowledge their importance and go all-in with the program. For the program to be successful, it takes full company support. This support includes creating a culture for members to engage within the group. Oftentimes, ERG meetings happen during business hours and conflict with other business meetings. Creating a culture to allow for members to prioritize the ERG participation will go a long way with internal ERG engagement. I had a leader whose team meeting overlapped with our ERG meeting. She allowed me to prioritize our ERG meeting and show up late to her meeting without any angst.

Culture is made of individual decisions. This manager's small choice: letting a team member attend an ERG meeting instead, is exactly the signal employees remember. Leaders who say belonging matters but schedule over ERG time leave a gap employees notice.

What is your proudest moment?

One, in particular, was the opportunity to watch Dr. Davis' keynote, moderated by one of our BBG leaders. Dr. Davis is an icon and a living legend. She was on the walls of many homes I visited and is a face on my personal Civil Rights Mt. Rushmore. Observing the conversation was incredible and an experience I will always remember.

Any final thoughts?

If you are an ERG member or leader, your hard work isn't going unnoticed and your contributions are extremely valuable. Finally, companies shouldn't feel an ERG is an initial requirement to champion DEI. One thing I most appreciate about Eventbrite is that we're focused on driving DEI and engaging with diverse communities independently of our ERG programs.

ERGs are one vehicle for belonging, not a substitute for systemic equity. Companies that create an ERG without addressing pay equity, promotion rates, and safe reporting will end up burning out the people they were trying to support. Psychological safety has to be real, not just posted on a values slide.

Where Black ERG leadership stands in 2025 and 2026

Robinson's interview was published in late 2021, at the peak of corporate commitment to racial equity following 2020. The landscape has shifted since, but his core framework holds.

The representation gap is narrowing slowly

Black employees still hold roughly 1.6% of Fortune 500 CEO positions. According to MentorCliq's 2024 ERG research, racial equity-focused ERGs have driven a 22% improvement in Black and Latino employee retention, but only at companies where programs have executive backing and dedicated budgets. Only 40% of ERGs receive dedicated budgets. And 60% of ERG leaders report that balancing ERG work with their regular job remains a persistent strain. Robinson named this tension in 2021. It is still the central design flaw in most ERG programs.

ERG compensation is moving from conversation to practice

In 2021, Robinson described financial compensation for ERG leaders as something that "does not currently exist" at most companies. By 2025, a growing number of employers offer stipends, formal time allocations, or career framework credit for ERG leadership. The shift reflects a recognition that building equity programs on unpaid volunteer time, drawn disproportionately from employees in marginalized groups, is itself a structural problem. MentorCliq's research shows ERG-involved employees are 70% more likely to be promoted when organizations invest enough in the program to make that development real. If your ERG still runs entirely on volunteer hours, treat that as a retention risk worth addressing. See how AllVoices supports HR teams building more accountable, employee-centered workplaces.