"What Aleisha has done has been incredibly important — for me and for us. Every aspect of this role is incredible and helps advance our priorities, and it's a great, efficient use of our resources."
— Ben Thomases, Executive Director
The Challenge
Ben Thomases serves as Executive Director of Queens Community House, a community-based nonprofit operating across 39 sites in 14 neighborhoods in Queens, New York. With a staff of more than 200 full-time and 300 part-time employees serving over 26,000 residents annually, Ben's role demands an extraordinary level of coordination — from managing recurring meetings to fielding urgent requests from elected and senior government officials.
Despite the size and complexity of the organization, finding the right administrative support had long proven elusive. Queens Community House relies heavily on restricted programmatic funding, leaving little flexibility for full-time administrative salaries.
"One of the things that's very challenging about the operating environment — to be perfectly transparent — is most of our funding is restricted to programmatic uses. We don't have a lot of flexible administrative dollars to spend on things like administrative support, and I know that managing my calendar is not a full-time job. It's a lot of work and it's important, but it's not a full-time job. Spending a full-time salary just doesn't make sense. We have to be mindful of every dollar, very cost conscious."
After numerous false starts searching for a solution, Ben was referred to BELAY by a colleague — and that recommendation changed everything.
The Solution
Ben was connected with BELAY Client Success Coordinator Alex, who quickly helped him translate his vision for executive support into an actionable plan. Ben came prepared with an executive assistant guide, and Alex's confident, clear-eyed response immediately put him at ease.
"She was like, 'Oh, this is great. We can do this.' Honestly, I had felt a little crazy because while managing my calendar is difficult and there's a lot of complicated stuff, it's not rocket science. And it was such a feeling of relief the way Alex conveyed this confidence of, 'You know exactly what you want. This is making my job much easier.' [That brought] such a feeling of relief for me. Someone hears me."
Alex's strong onboarding work set the stage for an ideal match. She quickly identified the personality traits and working style that would make the relationship succeed, pairing Ben with BELAY Virtual Assistant Aleisha Petri. Aleisha stepped into a dynamic, fast-moving environment — one where shifting priorities and high-profile requests can arrive with little warning — and rose to the occasion.
"We had been looking for a high-quality, cost-conscious solution for a long time and had a lot of false starts. BELAY came recommended by a colleague and that's how it came about."
— Ben Thomases, Executive DirectorThe Impact
Since Aleisha Petri joined as Ben's Virtual Assistant, the results have been both practical and deeply meaningful. Aleisha's responsiveness and commitment to Ben's detailed guidelines have made her an indispensable part of how Queens Community House operates at the executive level.
"Aleisha has been a very good fit. She is very responsive. She takes the guidelines very seriously."
The value of that reliability became especially clear in high-stakes moments — such as when the Speaker of the House arranged a visit to the community center on just two days' notice. Ben describes the work as a constant balancing act, and having Aleisha managing that complexity has made it sustainable.
"What Aleisha has done has been incredibly important — for me and for us. Every aspect of this role is incredible and helps advance our priorities, and it's a great, efficient use of our resources."
For a nonprofit where every administrative dollar is scrutinized, BELAY delivered exactly what Ben had been searching for: high-quality executive support at a cost that aligns with the organization's mission-first values.