Purpose Before Profit: Eran Rozen Of monday.com On The Benefits Of Running A Purpose-Driven Business
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Hire talented, purpose-driven team members who can lead your initiative to success.
Set the Right Goals: Establish goals that create real-world impact.
Listen to Beneficiaries: They will guide you on what they need most and become your best ambassadors.
Collaborate: Work with other departments and stakeholders to create win-win-win collaborations.
Focus on Core Value: Align your social impact efforts with your company’s main value proposition.
In today’s competitive business landscape, the race for profits often takes center stage. However, there are some leaders who also prioritize a mission-driven purpose. They use their business to make a positive social impact and recognize that success isn’t only about making money. In this interview series, we are talking with some of these distinct leaders, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Eran Rozen, Social Responsibility Product Lead at monday.com.
Eran Rozen is the Social Responsibility Product Lead at monday.com, where he spearheads initiatives that help nonprofits maximize their impact. With over a decade of experience in product leadership, customer success, and social innovation, including founding the award-winning platform BKind and leading global fundraising campaigns with Bike for the Fight, Eran has a proven track record of building impactful solutions that scale across communities worldwide. His passion for creating products that drive meaningful change is matched by his hands-on expertise in cross-functional leadership, business strategy, and scaling social enterprises.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was born in California and moved to Israel at a young age. Growing up, I witnessed kindness and giving in my family life. My parents didn’t explicitly teach these values; I observed their interactions and efforts to help those in need.
I also inherited a love for the ocean, outdoors, and music, with surfing as one of my biggest passions. From a young age, I wanted to make a positive impact, starting with small acts like leaving the beach cleaner or helping classmates. As I grew, my desire to effect change expanded, leading me to spearhead regional and nationwide initiatives, including a climate action movement for teens and co-founding a nonprofit for cancer research and a startup promoting kindness, reaching 60,000 users in 40 countries.
My love for learning drove me to explore technology’s potential for large-scale impact, especially with no-code and AI tools. When I had the opportunity to build the monday.com for nonprofits team, it felt right. Having led social initiatives, I understood the digital gap. Since our launch in January 2021, we’ve supported over 22,000 active nonprofits in 142 countries, with over 135,000 staff using our platform.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Every day, I see incredible nonprofits tackling major challenges. Most interactions are automated to efficiently serve them, but sometimes a hands-on approach is necessary. A project led by Vital Voices and the Institute of Peace exemplified this. After civil unrest in Afghanistan, many refugee women needed safe havens. The challenge was to assist around 14,000 women with visa applications under strict timelines and requirements. We quickly assembled a task force to create a system that managed this efficiently, ensuring all refugees could find safety. We often learn the most from our mistakes.
Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
From the outset of launching monday.com for nonprofits, we aimed to support large-scale nonprofits. However, in our haste to build quickly, we sometimes overlooked the long-term scalability of our solutions. One of my biggest mistakes was not considering whether what we were building could sustain the scale of our program in the future. As a result, we now need to rebuild some of these early solutions to accommodate our growth. The lesson here is clear: if you aim for scale, build everything with scalability in mind. Your future self will thank you.
As a successful leader, it’s clear that you uphold strong core values. I’m curious what are the most important principles you firmly stand by and refuse to compromise on. Can you share a few of them and explain why they hold such significance for you in your work and life?
Transparency & Trust: We believe that transparency fosters ownership and harnesses collective intelligence. It eliminates politics and bureaucracy, ensuring that everyone works towards the same goal. Trust is foundational; we trust our team to make the right decisions.
Think Long-Term and Be Nonprofit-Centric: Our nonprofits are our best ambassadors. We prioritize long-term brand-building over short-term gains, ensuring our efforts align with the needs of the nonprofits we serve.
Ownership & Impact: We empower our team to make decisions and take ownership. Failure is part of the process, and we encourage learning from mistakes. Our focus is on making a measurable impact, not merely progress.
Speed and Execution: Speed is vital for success. Our capability to execute swiftly and adapt is a significant strength. We pursue perfection through iteration, consistently pushing boundaries and fostering a sense of achievement.
What inspired you to start a purpose-driven business rather than a traditional for-profit enterprise? Can you share a personal story or experience that led you to prioritize social impact in your business?
monday.com for Nonprofits is an extension of monday.com’s commitment to positive impact. The founders, Roy Mann and Eran Zinman, emphasized the importance of creating social impact alongside business success. I believe aligning social impact with a company’s culture and value proposition leads to better business outcomes, more engaged employees, and meaningful social contributions.
On a personal note, losing my father at 24 was a turning point. Seeking purpose and motivation, I found meaning in leading initiatives that create positive change. This personal journey, combined with monday.com’s culture, inspired me to prioritize social impact in my work.
Can you help articulate a few of the benefits of leading a purpose-driven business rather than a standard “plain vanilla” business?
Leading a purpose-driven business is inherently the right thing to do. It aligns team KPIs with social impact, which, in turn, positively affects business metrics like ARR, brand reputation, and employee retention. It attracts talented, purpose-driven individuals who collaborate effectively and build resilience during challenging times.
Moreover, it fosters a deeper connection with the ecosystem — partners, vendors, and customers — who see the company as a force for good. For instance, when customers discover that the software they use also supports nonprofits they care about, it strengthens their loyalty. This combination of a great product and meaningful impact is a winning formula.
How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?
Our mission is to empower nonprofits with the tools and skills they need to maximize their impact. With over 22,000 nonprofits from 142 countries using monday.com, we focus on ensuring they utilize our Work Operating System (Work OS) to its full potential. Our metrics track nonprofit activity on our platform, helping them adopt and leverage it effectively. This approach enables nonprofits to achieve more with less, transforming their operations and amplifying their impact.
Can you share a pivotal moment when you realized that leading your purpose-driven company was actually making a significant impact? Can you share a specific example or story that deeply resonated with you personally?
At a recent conference for nonprofit CEOs, I asked how many attendees used monday.com, and about a third raised their hands. It was incredible to see firsthand the number of nonprofits we support. Many approached me to express how monday.com has transformed their work and helped them overcome challenges. Witnessing their appreciation and disbelief at our free and discounted offerings was deeply resonant. These CEOs are the real heroes, and we at monday.com are fortunate to support their efforts in creating positive change.
Have you ever faced a situation where your commitment to your purpose and creating a positive social impact clashed with the profitability in your business? Have you ever been challenged by anyone on your team or have to make a tough decision that had a significant impact on finances? If so, how did you address and reconcile this conflict?
From the beginning, we’ve ensured that monday.com for nonprofits is sustainable. While we could have offered our software entirely for free, we chose a model that balances accessibility and sustainability. We provide 10 free seats for each product and a 60% discount for additional seats, ensuring that budget isn’t a barrier for nonprofits. This approach allows us to support nonprofits of all sizes while maintaining a sustainable and profitable domain within monday.com.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs who wish to start a purpose-driven business?
Start as soon as possible. The earlier you begin your mission-driven journey, the greater the impact you’ll create. Focus on initiatives that align with your company’s value proposition, and hire individuals who view this as a life mission. You need long-distance runners to achieve a significant impact.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Purpose-Driven Business.”
- Hire talented, purpose-driven team members who can lead your initiative to success. For instance, Alex Jones, our Nonprofit Success Manager, trains hundreds of nonprofit staff weekly, ensuring they maximize the platform’s potential. Laura Lemus, our Nonprofit Partnership Manager, forges strategic partnerships, helping us reach more organizations in need.
- Set the Right Goals: Establish goals that create real-world impact.
- Listen to Beneficiaries: They will guide you on what they need most and become your best ambassadors.
- Collaborate: Work with other departments and stakeholders to create win-win-win collaborations.
- Focus on Core Value: Align your social impact efforts with your company’s main value proposition.
I’m interested in how you instill a strong sense of connection with your team. How do you nurture a culture where everyone feels connected to your mission? Could you share an example or story that showcases how your purpose has positively influenced or motivated people on your team to contribute?
We share the impact of our work with employees, focusing on their strengths and talents. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and connection to our mission.
Imagine we’re sitting down together two years from now, looking back at your company’s last 24 months. What specific accomplishments would have to happen for you to be happy with your progress?
I envision having over 30,000 active nonprofits in our program, fully harnessing the potential of our Work Operating System (Work OS) and AI tools to scale their impact.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Just be kind! From small acts in daily life to leveraging organizational power, the ripple effect is infinite.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
To learn more about how monday.com empowers nonprofits to maximize their impact, visit monday.com/nonprofits. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to stay updated on new initiatives.
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.
Purpose Before Profit: monday.com’s Eran Rozen On The Benefits Of Running A Purpose-Driven was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.