Building Family-Friendly Benefits from the Ground Up

For most of its history, Excel by Eight operated with a fiscal sponsor, and team members served as contractors rather than employees. The transition to becoming an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit in March 2026 allowed executive director Angela Duran to build a benefits package for full-time employees from the ground up.

“We are a new nonprofit, so we really did have a completely blank slate,” Duran said. “It was good to be able to ask our team members what mattered most to them and then actually deliver on that.”

That meant approaching benefits the same way E8 encourages its Business Coalition members to approach childcare solutions: by listening first. Duran talked with the team members who would become employees to understand their priorities. Those conversations helped shape a family-friendly benefits package that reflected both employee needs and the lessons E8 had learned from employers across the coalition.

Excel by Eight chose to offer a Dependent Care Assistance Program, or DCAP, as part of its employee benefits package. Through the benefit, E8 contributes up to half of the allowable annual amount into employees’ dependent care accounts.

Employees can use those pre-tax funds for eligible childcare expenses, reducing the financial burden of care while helping the nonprofit offer a benefit aligned with its mission and advocacy work.

The benefit also gives E8 a stronger recruitment tool as the organization adds full-time staff, signaling to candidates that family-friendly policies are part of how the nonprofit operates, not just what it encourages other employers to consider.

Duran said the process was easier than expected. Excel by Eight worked with a third-party administrator to manage flexible spending accounts and dependent care accounts. The organization also uses an online HR system that automates contributions from both employees and employers, as well as provider payments.

That structure made it possible for E8 to offer the benefit without creating a heavy administrative burden for staff.

The decision was also influenced by lessons from the Business Coalition itself. Through the coalition, E8 had seen employers across Arkansas explore childcare benefits, gather employee input, and identify solutions that matched their workforce needs. The Port of Little Rock’s childcare needs assessment offered evidence that employers can learn what workers need before choosing a solution.

“We benefited from the work that our own team had done with other employers and the approaches they took,” Duran said.

That lesson applies beyond E8. Whether employers are building benefits from a blank slate or reconsidering existing policies, they can ask employees directly; learn from other employers; and choose solutions that support recruitment, retention, and family well-being.