First Fridays Boise / Partner With Us
For employers & civic partners
Recruiting to Idaho is the easy part.
You can sell the mountains, the commute, the cost of living. What you can't hand a new hire is a community that already knows them. That's the part we work on — and it's usually the part that decides whether they stay.
The retention gap
People rarely leave because of the job.
Idaho employers have gotten good at recruiting. The harder problem shows up twelve to eighteen months later, when a talented hire who relocated here starts quietly looking — not because the work went wrong, but because life outside of work never quite started.
For professionals of color moving to the Treasure Valley, that gap is structural. The networks that form easily elsewhere — the barber, the church, the friend group, the mentor who gets it — take real effort to build here.
of Idahoans are Black. A professional relocating here isn't just changing jobs — they're moving somewhere they may not see themselves reflected at the grocery store, the gym, or the school pickup line.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community SurveyReplacing an experienced professional is expensive, and the cost lands quietly — in lost institutional knowledge, in stalled projects, in the recruiting spend it takes to start over. Belonging isn't a soft benefit. It's a retention input.
What First Fridays Boise is
First Fridays Boise is the professional community for Black and multicultural professionals in Idaho's Treasure Valley. Founded in 2024, we host monthly gatherings across Boise, Meridian, Garden City and Nampa, publish a community newsletter, and run Sistas Who Lunch, a monthly gathering for Black women. Employers partner with us to reach that community, support the people they've already hired, and invest in the ecosystem that makes the Valley livable for talent they want to keep.
The offering
The Corporate Talent & Belonging Partnership.
A year-round partnership, not a logo placement. Five things your organization gets from working with us.
Talent access
Direct, ongoing presence in front of 440+ professionals of color across the Valley — an audience that job boards and career fairs consistently miss.
Support for the people you've already hired
Your employees get a community outside the office. For a relocated hire, that's often the difference between a two-year stay and a ten-year career.
Visible commitment
Candidates and employees read what your company actually shows up for. Consistent presence in this community is evidence, not a statement.
Insight you can act on
Honest perspective on what professionals of color experience in the Valley — what's working in your workplace and what isn't — from people who won't say it in an engagement survey.
Community investment
Your partnership underwrites the programming that keeps this community growing. That's the ecosystem every Treasure Valley employer recruits into.
The proof
What we can show you.
We track this so partnership decisions don't have to run on goodwill.
professionals in the First Fridays Boise community
average attendance per gathering*
gatherings hosted since 2024, across First Fridays Boise and Sistas Who Lunch
partner organizations to date
* Average excludes events with limited ticketing or seating capacity. Figures current as of July 2026.
In good company
Organizations already backing this work.
Start here
Let's talk about what you're solving for.
Tell us what your organization is working on — hiring, retention, or showing up better for the people already on your team — and we'll come back with what partnership could look like. No deck required to start.
Common questions
Before you ask.
What does partnership cost?
It depends on the level and on what you're trying to accomplish. We'd rather scope it to your goals than publish a number that fits nobody — reach out and we'll walk you through the options and what each one includes.
Is this diversity training?
No. We're not a consultancy and we don't run workshops for your staff. First Fridays Boise is a community — partnership connects your organization and your employees to it. If you need training or strategy work, we're glad to point you toward people who do that well.
How is this different from sponsoring an event?
An event sponsorship is one night. A partnership is a year-round relationship that your employees can actually use, with reporting you can take back to leadership. Level One exists for organizations that want to start with a single event and see how it lands.
Our company doesn't have a large presence in Idaho yet. Is this still relevant?
Often more so. If you're building a Treasure Valley team from a standing start, the community your hires land in matters enormously — and being visible here early is easier than showing up after people have already left.
How do you measure impact?
We track community size, attendance, engagement across our newsletter and channels, and partner-specific activity across the year. Annual and Talent & Belonging partners receive a summary built for internal reporting.
Can our employees attend even if we're not a partner?
Yes, always. Our gatherings are open to Black and multicultural professionals and to allies across the Valley. Partnership is about what your organization does to support and grow the community, not about buying access to it.
Who do we talk to?
Submit the partnership inquiry form or email events@firstfridaysboise.com and you'll hear back directly.