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Democracy Fund

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Democracy Fund Reviews

3.0

46% would recommend to a friend

(5 total reviews)
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Joe Goldman

37% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

5 reviews
1.0
4 Feb 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Money, benefits, food, work hours, facilities, equipment.

Cons

The deeply rooted culture of presenting 'diverse' appearances over embracing proven practices in the fields of diversity and inclusion, represented in my opinion, persistent discriminatory bias in hiring and retention of employees of color and other diverse backgrounds, in a persistent effort to present a tokenist 'diverse' face to the public while retaining the levers of power and control for a limited number of white executive staff or board members personally employed by or selected by the founder. Both on the board itself and the investment committee of senior staff charged with control of grant making and the programmatic directors charged with presenting strategies and candidates for grant funding, power was systematically kept within the ranks of senior white executives or other direct employees of the founder, for fear that more diverse employees would affect the perceived bipartisan nature of the organization, which de facto meant a gag order on anything internally or in program funding related to race, diversity, or identity as a political issue let alone as a toxic issue affecting the organization's workplace culture and mission. Employees of color and diverse backgrounds were hired under the understanding they would be given a meaningful role in the programmatic work of the organization only to be tasked with menial administrative work to make the roles of the white executives easier, and what would have otherwise been high level executive positions with decision making power were otherwise handicapped or adjusted to be subordinate to the existing white executives to prevent any new diverse hires having any real control in the organization. Employees who repeatedly voiced their concerns (and there were many) over perceived or real bias and discrimination in the organizational structure and its hiring and funding practices, would consistently be retaliated against, ignored, shut off from decision making, excluded from meetings, interviews, etc. or otherwise reprimanded, threatened, or induced to silence their criticisms resulting in many employees who voiced these concerns the most vocally eventually choosing to leave or being forced out. Regretfully, hiring decisions and terminations as an unofficial policy were discussed verbally to avoid creating paperwork that could potentially later incriminate, and every hiree was required to sign arbitration agreements and ndas as part of the onboarding or termination process.

4.0
21 June 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Politically representative, but not polarized staff. Dems and Reps who want to work together and create real, positive change in a difficult political climate.

Cons

Processes, planning, and projects can be very abstract at time; very horizontal organization makes it difficult to move forward with pace.

1.0
10 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I want to say that the pros are the people, but there aren't many left at this point. The incredible staff when I was there were the strength of this organization, but they've been systematically laying them off or pushing them out over the past few years.

Cons

The president and those around him are the embodiment of the toxic nonprofit mindset of sacrificing people for the mission because they ultimately lost sight of the fact that the people are what makes the mission succeed. Leadership does not care about culture and values - they see themselves as saviors of democracy, but forget that the staff are (or were) the ones who were doing the actual work. They particularly treat lower-level staff, coordinators especially, as disposable. They've cut staff farther down on the hierarchy in the name of "saving money so we can make bigger grants", all while keeping staff whose nebulous "Senior Advisor" or "executive advisor" titles earn them massive salaries that dwarf what is being saved with the layoffs.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 5 Reviews

Glassdoor has 8 Democracy Fund reviews submitted anonymously by Democracy Fund employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Democracy Fund is right for you.