Pros
- The mission is genuinely compelling.
- Frontline staff, volunteers, and managers perform miracles with limited resources.
- You will meet some of the most dedicated people you may ever encounter in your career.
- Excellent place to develop skills in: change management, risk management, stakeholder management, emotional regulation, and archaeology; you will spend a surprising amount of time conducting excavations to determine why something exists and who promised it to a donor in 2018.
Cons
- HQ Culture: Imagine watching a group of people dismantle an airplane while simultaneously debating the best paint color for the replacement aircraft.
- Leadership: Frequently expresses a desire for innovation, and has addressed this challenge through repeated reductions in operational capacity and institutional knowledge.
- Talent Strategy: The organization appears committed to transforming itself into a modern, agile nonprofit while drawing heavily from leadership talent pools whose formative experience was gained in organizations that were not required to be either modern or agile.
- Technology: Several systems are simultaneously mission critical, underfunded, being replaced, not being replaced, going away, and required forever. The status depends on which meeting you attended.
- Operational Strategy: Announcements, initiatives, and reorganizations arrive with impressive speed. The supporting operational plans occasionally arrive later.