Pros
Good initial idea - science for the general public. Seem to hire great people, and then crap all over them and they leave. But initially hire well. And the audience at large loves the organization - huge following - sad that they dont know the truth - dont need too. They just make it seem like all is well and reality is behind the curtain its toxic, disgustingly unprofessional, and an embarrassment of an organization. Everything else is horrible and wrong.
Cons
The founders had a great idea - and that is where the positive ends. They are two of the worst human beings I have encountered in my professional career. Egotistical, vain, often outright mean, ungrateful, and unqualified for 90% of running a non-profit. The energy in the office is toxic - they run the organization like a for-profit and have the audacity to treat the employees, partners, and vendors as absolute trash. There is no forum for recourse as the Board is all personal friends, continuing to exhibit ill placed nepotism. Someone should get to Alan Alda's people to truly explain the organization and have him focus his energy elsewhere. There is no basic understanding of communication, marketing, what a website is and does, how to best use or basically use email communication, ticket models for earned income is completely ignored, and fundraising. Funds that have been raised are used without regard to restricted gifts and the entire WSF staff was used to build the flop that is the World Science University. Hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on making something to be "mine" purely done as an ego project - rather than actually creating something that wouldn't cost a fortune and would work with an established organization or company. Its asinine! The turn over is astounding, and people leave that organization in a state of shock. Yes you can have a bad work environment - but this place is unique in its disfunction, vile leaders, and outright stupidity. For having a scientist running the organization there is a major lack of understanding in how time actually works. Things don't magically happen, and vendors don't care who you are to work overtime or cancel jobs for you. The part that encapsulates it perfectly is the name - World Science Festival. The pure hubris to name yourself this, and not be involved with the world at large, to not be reaching out to Science Festivals across the country is just perfectly stupid. Organizations in other states - never heard of WSF, in the UK, never heard of WSF, in Asia - nope, never heard of it. And just pushing programs in Amsterdam doesnt make up for the ridiculous idea to name the organization the World Science Festival.