Candid. Reviews

3.4

59% would recommend to a friend

(46 total reviews)
avatar

Ann Mei Chang

42% approve of CEO

32% positive business outlook

Candid. has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 46 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Candid. employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Non-profit and NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

46 reviews
1.0
13 Aug 2021

Cultural disintegration

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

We do good work for the nonprofit sector and have tons of data that could be put to good use.

Cons

Candid should be a powerhouse in the nonprofit sector, combining the data and people from Foundation Center and GuideStar. No wonder foundations dropped millions of dollars into funding the marriage and integration. Boy, were they wrong! The real Candid is a snapshot of the many things that go wrong in the sector. Well intentioned dollars sucked down into the black hole of executive management that literally know next to nothing about how to run a business. All we hear is talk of strategy and theories of change, etc. but nothing that makes sense to the people doing the work or the people buying/using the data. This place is run by a bunch of ivory tower fools. Pay special attention to some of the people with fancy degrees - they are the most out of touch with reality and overly pleased with their big words.

1.0
7 Jan 2026

Good organization gone bad

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fabulous co-workers; remote work; mission-based (or, used to be)

Cons

Senior Leadership (CEO and new COO) have no vision or ability to lead this nonprofit and have run it into the ground. If not for a large grant made years ago by McKenzie Scott and good fundraising efforts from previous legacy organizations Candid would already be defunct. Candid can't figure out if it's a technology company or a nonprofit and they're doing a really poor job at both right now.

5.0
29 Jan 2023

Tech company with a social mission

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you're applying to Candid and are curious about the difference between this review and the more negative ones, there are a few things you should know. First, Candid was formed when GuideStar and Foundation Center merged in 2019. The two parent organizations had been around for decades, so naturally there were some people who were not happy about the merger. Some of those people left, and employees now are mostly happy about the current organization. Second, there have been a few reorgs in the past few years. Some of this is related to the merger, and some is probably related to the new CEO (more about her below). The reorgs are now done, so you shouldn't expect a lot of organization change in the next few years. Last, Ann Mei Chang joined as CEO in 2021. She originally worked in tech, then switched to nonprofit work. If you want to work at a tech company that happens to be a nonprofit focused on transparency, then this is the place for you. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then you may want to consider another organization. Ann Mei has written a book titled Lean Impact about her approach to nonprofit work. I find that her work at Candid is aligned with the values in her book, which I really enjoyed. As a result, I like working here. If you don't like the book, then you probably won't like it here.

Cons

At the time of writing (2023), there are still some legacy processes and tech that need to be merged from the 2019 merger. Everyone agrees that things need to be harmonized, but it takes time. In the meantime, some work is slowed down.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 46 Reviews

Glassdoor has 50 Candid. reviews submitted anonymously by Candid. employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Candid. is right for you.