Great pay, benefits and work but poor leadership
Pros
- Fantastic benefits. This includes unlimited paid time off, extended paid time off, parental leave, many holidays off, 10% 403b match, cell phone support, and funds for personal and professional growth. - Great pay for a nonprofit. I believe I started at $39,000 as a specialist in 2020 and ended at $68,000 as a manager in 2025. - Hybrid-to-remote work is amply available. - There are lots of networking opportunities within the politics, policy, environmental advocacy, law, and science sectors. - Staff is friendly, driven and dedicated. The staff was close despite hybrid/remote work. - A real chance to make a difference in Michigan. The Environmental Council, its staff and its policy solutions are truly trusted among reporters, policymakers and others. - Ample chances to move up in pay, title, and responsibility.
Cons
- High turnover among campaigns, communications, development, and operations staff. - A difficult-to-work with CEO and a leadership team that cannot properly help. This has been the reason why a few former staff members in campaigns, comms, development, and operations teams have left the organization, and it is suspected that other staff have left at least in part because of him. He can be suddenly cruel, he can be unwilling to hear feedback, he can micromanage, and he can request grand, taxing projects that do not always meet the strategic plan. - Ethically hazy decisions. The CEO and the board have approved contracts with the CEO's former wife and his current partner (although stipulations within these contracts around ethics were not revealed to staff, so perhaps there are guardrails). The CEO's current partner also sits on a board committee.