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Vanguard Charitable Endowment

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Vanguard Charitable Endowment Reviews

2.5

15% would recommend to a friend

(29 total reviews)

Rebecca Moffett

14% approve of CEO

23% positive business outlook

Vanguard Charitable Endowment has an employee rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars, based on 29 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Vanguard Charitable Endowment employee rating is 33% below average for employers within the Non-profit and NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

29 reviews
2.0
7 June 2020

Stepford Wives meets Mean Girls

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits are great. Some managers are great. Flexible hours for some positions.

Cons

The title should give you an idea of the culture. The company is image obsessed and expects an odd sort of cookie cutter personality from their employees which means (mostly) white women from middle or upper class backgrounds generally with husbands in high paying jobs and all must smile non-stop and pretend that everything is always going 100% perfectly or the managers will come after you. For all the expected pleasantries, the environment is catty and favoritism and gossip is rampant among managers. They tend to avoid firing people and will instead make your life miserable enough to quit if they don’t like you. While the barest perception of disagreement or slight to a manager or favored employee will get a lower level employee raked over the coals, managers and favored employees are often bullies and nasty with no consequence and no one will ever believe you if you report them. The high net worth group dumps their work off on everyone else, often without asking if their coworker has capacity or knows anything about the work, and if you protest, you will, again, be raked over the coals. HR exists to back managers and is generally of no help. Much of the staff is expected to work long, demanding hours, especially in the busy season at the end of the year. As another review said, training is not great due to disorganization among management and the fact that many managers have no idea how the department they’re running works. Emblematic of the overall issues, a major project was pushed forward at the busiest time of year despite most employees knowing the software was not working and would cause major problems because the culture made everyone too afraid to raise the concerns and suggest delaying the project. Overall, the place has been miserable to work for to the point of being actively detrimental to my health.

2.0
27 Jan 2018

Exhausting

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-You learn a lot about yourself and what is important to you in a career -If you want to be a working mom, it's probably fine -Pension plan (It's an investment - you need to be willing to stay for 7 years from your full-time hire start date.) -Comprehensive healthcare (no deductible when I worked there - because there'd be no way anyone could afford to pay one.) -Monthly 1 on 1s with your manager

Cons

They will work you like a dog for less than half of what you're worth. You won't make enough money to pay rent and student loans, so most employees are young women living at home (or married rich.) It results in a mental exhaustion that leaves you doubting yourself and makes it hard to find other jobs. Most employees are normally actively looking for work elsewhere, and when they leave, the other employees are left to pick up the pieces. Everyone is doing about 5 jobs, running from meeting to meeting. You need to be doing your current job and the next job up for about a year or two before you'll get the promotion to that job you've already been doing for a year. The culture is that of "big Vanguard" so you need to be a yes man and don't bring "negativity" by dissenting about anything. The bureaucracy to get anything done is extensive. If you're used to working for large corporations, then you'll be fine. But, things are very slow moving and there is no room for real innovation. From what I could gather while working there, the board rules the organization with an iron fist on budget (unless the real problem is that managers just don't want to advocate for their employees to get paid what they're worth.) "360 feedback" is done haphazardly, so it results in managers providing sometimes negative feedback on employees they've never worked with and it hurts that employee's ability to ever move up at the organization (unbeknownst to them sometimes.) The politics are intense, anxiety-inducing, and completely unnecessary. I really really love the mission of this organization, so I wish I could say working there was better. But, it drained me of life and caused negative impacts on my personal relationships outside of work. Leaving was the best decision I could make and I was able to double my salary by going elsewhere. You can't work from home, so the thought was "work can't follow me home." But I woke up routinely through the night with anxiety and a clenched jaw while working there, and it took months for that to go away when I started at my new job.

1.0
13 Jan 2014

Not as advertised

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Vacation, holidays, and CR testing

Cons

The "VC Mom's Club" runs middle and senior management and does the organization a disservice. Also, too many cozy friendships exist between all managers and executives, impairing judgment, leading to poor decision making, and harming the organization as a whole.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 29 Reviews

Glassdoor has 40 Vanguard Charitable Endowment reviews submitted anonymously by Vanguard Charitable Endowment employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Vanguard Charitable Endowment is right for you.