Every moment I spent at GreenLight was a moment too long.
Pros
This organization offers an annual travel opportunity to meet and work with colleagues in person.
Cons
GreenLight Fund parades itself as a progressive organization that truly "listens" to the communities they serve. In reality, the organization develops strong partnerships - and gives board membership - to companies that profit off of poverty, hurting our communities and feeding a narrative that poverty is simply too big to solve. Apart from the way they pursue impact, I've never had such a disappointing experience in any workplace that I've been a part of. In a strongly hierarchical organization, the associates (lowest on the totem pole) felt the brunt of each of leadership's poor decisions. Leadership had no oversight whatsoever on how sites were managed, and therefore, associates had no protection from "bad bosses." Beyond the lack of oversight, even when associate's concerns were brought to HR, most often these concerns were ignored, pushed aside, or simply used to gaslight staff into believing that this is simply "how the nonprofit world works." Mackenzie Scott gave this organization a $10 million grant, asking them to care for their staff who was working overdrive to support their board's mission. A staff of less than 35 saw a $250 bonus. There is a valid question about why the rest of the funds were allocated to future investments. Despite having development staff, the role of fundraising lands squarely on the board chair, John Simon. Thus, if most of the $10 million grant was put towards future investment pools, they simply made the life of John Simon, multimillionaire board chair, $10 million easier.