Office Doors: A Day with Debbie Castaldo

Senior vice president of corporate + community impact at the Arizona Diamondbacks and executive director of the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation

By Julie Coleman

5 a.m. >> STARTING AT HOME PLATE

            My husband, Vince, and I are empty nesters. One of our sons is in college and our other son is away at a soccer academy. So the mornings are our couple time. After we get up, we spend time just hanging out and having coffee together and talking about the day. We look at the kids’ schedules, where we’re going to be, and what we’re going to do. And then Vince heads off to the gym, and I ride my bike at home.

            By 7 a.m., I am in my home office. Major League Baseball is on East Coast time. So, I’ll have emails to look at from the night before, or things I can answer quickly. This allows our East Coast partners to be on their way, and then I head into the office.

8 a.m. >> THE DAY’S WARM-UP

            My entire team sits together what we call our community pod. I typically don’t open my office door for quite some time as I first head to the team, go from office to office, say good morning and check in. I stay in our collaborative space for at least an hour, roll up a chair to each team member’s desk and see what they are working on and how I can help, such as approving verbiage or looking at the website.

            I love the time with my team in the morning. I’m excited when I get here, and I still love what I do every day. They know this is the time that I will show up, and they have their questions ready!

10 a.m. >> TEAM HUDDLES ARE THE NORM

            Every day, we have set meetings at this time, such as executive leadership, business operations, my staff, and corporate partnership teams. I meet often with our production and social media team, which does a lot to support our philanthropy. We spend time in the morning getting the business of philanthropy underway.

Noon >> HITTING IT OUT OF THE PARK

            I am a working-lunch person. I always try and grab someone and see if they want to walk to lunch with me to one of the many great places downtown. We work on concepts for partners or brainstorm how we’re going to cover things in social media. We’ll talk about our community partners and who we want to spotlight because our role is to amplify our community partners, help them raise more funds, and help the community understand what they’re doing. We’re also fundraisers. We discuss how we are going to fundraise through our gala, golf tournament or our 50/50 raffle. Because in the end, just like every other nonprofit, we start at zero every year and must raise money.

            In 2009, this role was created for me by Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall, who had the vision to be the best. Derrick and Ken Kendrick, the Diamondbacks managing general partner, are by far the most philanthropic people I’ve met in my life. They’re also passionate about solving problems in the community. The first year I joined the organization, we raised $1.9 million. And for the last three years, we’ve raised over $9 million each year. We’ve come a long way in 10 years! In 2020, we will surpass $70 million in total giving plus an additional $50 million in tickets, merchandise and experiences. We are Major League Baseball’s youngest team and will reach $100 million in giving long before anyone would have expected us to. Now we’re on a mission to see what more we can do.

1 p.m. >> A HEAVY HITTER PLAYING BALL

            I work in my office, bringing concepts and ideas to life. I think about the elements that are going to make it worthwhile for a partner to be involved and how we are going to make an impact. And then more importantly, how do we tell the story? How will we share with fans what we’ve done with the funds we’ve raised or how will we make sure we’re changing the face of hunger in Arizona and that people know there are nonprofits that are doing it well? Relationships are everything to me; it’s all about connecting with people. Throughout the day, I check in with our partners, people who are my mentors in the community, and big projects that I know are going on around us. For example, two Boys & Girls Clubs are merging. So, I reach out to other leaders and see how they’re doing and whether we can help with anything. 

5 p.m. >> A BASEBALL FAMILY’S LEGACY

            My team stays and works every home game because we are fundraising and interacting with fans. Many times, we’re also working with Fox Sports Arizona on away games as we’re doing cool things with our corporate partners or our players. Particularly during the season, we work very, very long days. Everyone who works here does so because they genuinely love baseball and philanthropy. They have the opportunity to work with fans through our 50/50 raffle. We have our community clubhouse and auctions that we do all the time. We have community partners that are here and groups that we donate tickets to. Hosting is our responsibility. And being a professional sports team, I’m proud that my team takes this very seriously. In the end, everyone’s all in. Our family is a baseball family, and baseball is supposed to be something more than just the game. Baseball is about the people we serve and the community where we live.

10 p.m. >> KEEPING AN EYE ON THE BALL

            One of my challenges is that I tend to focus on people, which means that I can be behind on emails and voicemails because if someone is with me, that’s where my attention is. I spend time at the end of the day scanning the day’s emails and voicemails and identifying what I need to respond to quickly so that people know I’m paying attention.

            To learn more, go to mlb.com/dbacks/community.