Pros
-many of the mid-level staff up to director level are smart, kind, and committed to the mission of ADF
Cons
I have worked at several national nonprofits, and this one is by far the least functional. I cannot imagine why any major corporation or donor would knowingly give their money to the Arbor Day Foundation, which pours literally millions of dollars of its revenue into maintaining its paper mailing program and upkeep of the former property of a vocal anti-abolitionist and racist. specific cons include: -completely incompetent upper-level management; no defined strategy; tons of mission drift and dollar-driven above all else. -blatant mistreatment of people of color, women, and pretty much anybody who disagrees with the group of white male buddies who run the organization. this usually happens under the guise of "organizational culture" - using culture to exclude people or discourage new ideas, shifts in strategy, or counterpoints to leadership's ideas is a HUGE red flag. -organizational strategy lacks any M&E work. fundraising efforts are almost completely reliant on sending out paper spam mail due to one sr. leader's personal preference rather than any collection or analysis of actual data or fundraising trends -the constant creation of new internal "businesses" designed to act as revenue streams, which are usually mostly irrelevant to the mission and often fail to bring in any actual revenue. -complete disconnect between junior & mid-level staff and the executive team, most of whom seem to spend most of their days twiddling their thumbs