Most ERG programs don't fail because people stop caring. They stall because the people running them are volunteers with day jobs, the executive sponsors aren't sure what they're sponsoring, and every conversation is about the next event instead of the outcome the group is trying to drive.
Vanessa Spatafora has spent fifteen years working on this exact problem. She held tech and inclusion roles at companies like Amazon and Deloitte, and now runs her own practice helping organizations turn stalled ERG programs into infrastructure that holds. As one of Kunik's practitioners, she leads ERG leadership foundations and executive sponsor programs for companies rebuilding their ERG operating model.
We sat down with her to talk about what separates an ERG program that compounds from one that quietly runs out of steam.
Below, she covers:
Let's dig in.
"The moment an ERG program becomes 'who's planning the next event,' it's already in trouble. The groups that last are the ones organized around outcomes, not activities."
The pattern Vanessa sees most often isn't apathy. It's structure. A company launches ERGs with energy and good intentions, then hands them to volunteer leaders with no operating model, no clear relationship to leadership, and no framework for deciding what to work on. The leaders do their best, which usually means planning events, because events are visible and concrete. But event planning isn't a strategy. A year in, the group is tired and the impact is hard to point to.
The deeper problem, in her experience, is that ERGs get treated as a series of activities rather than as infrastructure. When there's no backbone, no onboarding for new leaders, no alignment with sponsors, no rhythm that survives a leader stepping down, the whole thing depends on a few motivated people. When those people burn out or move on, the program stalls.
"Volunteer energy is real, but it's not a plan. You can't build something durable on people staying late to plan the next panel."
The framework Vanessa uses to shift ERG leaders out of event-planning mode is what she calls the 4Cs, a model for prioritizing where an ERG actually spends its energy. Adapted from EY research on ERG effectiveness, it gives leaders four lenses to organize their work:
The point of the model isn't to do all four at once. It's to help leaders see that Culture, the heritage-month events and awareness campaigns, is only one quarter of what an ERG can be. The groups that earn real standing in an organization are usually the ones that move into Commerce and Careers, where the impact is legible to leadership.
"When an ERG can show it moved a retention number or shaped how a product got built, the conversation with leadership changes completely. You stop asking for budget and start getting invited to the table."
One of the biggest sources of ERG dysfunction, in Vanessa's view, is a misunderstanding of what the executive sponsor is for. Too often, sponsors think their role is to show up at events or approve logistics. That's not sponsorship. That's attendance.
She frames the sponsor's job around three strategic levers.
Strategic coach. The sponsor's most valuable contribution is helping ERG leaders think bigger. That means asking open-ended questions, helping them navigate the organization, and pushing them from reactive event planning toward proactive, outcome-driven proposals. The sponsor isn't there to do the work. They're there to raise the altitude of the leaders' thinking.
Vocal and visible advocate. A sponsor champions the ERG's work in the rooms the leaders can't get into: senior leadership forums, executive communications, budget conversations. That advocacy adds legitimacy the ERG can't generate on its own.
Partnership builder. The best sponsors connect ERG leaders to resources and networks. Vanessa points to one sponsor who introduced a speaker from their own network, which gave the sponsor real skin in the game and made them far more invested in the event's success. The connection did double duty: it helped the ERG and deepened the sponsor's commitment.
"The sponsor role is strategic, not operational. The minute a sponsor is managing logistics, both the sponsor and the leaders are set up to fail."
The final piece, and the one most programs skip, is building the partnership deliberately instead of hoping it works out. Vanessa has ERG leaders and sponsors define their working agreements up front: how they'll communicate, what the sponsor's real availability is, how involved the sponsor wants to be in things like promotion and review.
It sounds administrative. It's actually what keeps the relationship from quietly collapsing. When a sponsor's boundaries and a leader's expectations are never discussed, the gap between them becomes resentment. When they're named early, the partnership has a chance to last.
She also points to moments of organizational change, like mergers, acquisitions, and restructures, as places where ERGs can prove their infrastructure value. When two companies combine, ERGs can be one of the few places employees from both sides build community and bridge cultures. An ERG program built as infrastructure can absorb that role. One built around events can't.
"The goal is to build something that doesn't depend on any one person staying motivated. That's the difference between an ERG program and an ERG moment."
Tell us what you're trying to build. We'll bring the practitioner who can help you build it.