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Gates Foundation

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Gates Foundation reviews

3.7

63% would recommend to a friend

(561 total reviews)
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Mark Suzman

81% approve of CEO

70% positive business outlook

Gates Foundation has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 561 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Gates Foundation employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Nonprofit & NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

561 reviews
4.0
May 19, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- The mission of the foundation helps you get through the tough times, and lifts you up through the good times - Without question, You work with the best and the brightest in any respective field, at all levels of the organization. - The foundation's clients (grantees) are some of the best and brightest as well, and are highly passionate about the work that they do - Operates more like a corporation than a grass-roots 501c3 (can be good and bad) - Good information sharing from executive management. More face-to-face time with execs than your typical medium sized organization. - Excellent suite of benefits - Excellent physical work space with a strong emphasis on the employee, alternative working styles, etc Counterpoints: - An appropriate amount of growth/management opportunities availible to those up to the task. One can't complain about having inexperienced managers as well as having no growth opportunities. The inexperienced managers are in place because they were given the opportunity to manage. - The foundation is highly diverse, particuarly within Global Development, Global Health, and IT. You will work with individuals from all over the word, with rich experiences from a multitude of organizations and cultures.

Cons

- Consensus driven conservative decision making. As a result it is difficult and generally more difficult costly to acomplish tasks and projects compared to other non-profit/for-profit organizations - High number of IT consultants/contractors can make knowledge retention and consistent strategies/methodologies a challenge (noticiable full-time hiring ramp up within the last 6 months though) - Operates more like a corporation than a grass-roots 501c3 (can be good and bad) - Limited process consistency across the various grant-distributing facets of the organization that should run in a similar manner. This makes IT solutioning difficult.

5.0
May 6, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- I have always felt I am a valuable and contributing part of the foundation. - My participation is always valued and requested. - Opportunity for personal growth is amazing - Compensation and benefits are more than fair. - Outreach possibilities within the community are encouraged - Foundation fosters a family-like work environment. - Incentives are high for "green" workplace/commute

Cons

- It does take quite a bit of effort and and indeterminate amount of meetings for decisions to be made. - Organization as a whole is slow to change

5.0
Apr 27, 2011

Challenging and Rewarding

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Being a part of the mission is inspiring - Benefits are great - It is challenging to work here, which I find very satisfying - We are given amazing resources to do our job - Flexibility - Opportunity to work on really interesting and engaging projects - Opportunity to work with gifted and passionate co-workers - It is always fun to answer the question "where do you work?"

Cons

- We sometimes over think our solutions and fail to see the simple answer in front of us. - There are a small percentage of employees who lack humility and spread an unblanced amount of negative energy to those they work with. It appears that thier behaviour and attitudes are tolerated by management, which is frustrating. - We rely on temporary consultants for a lot of strategic work and thinking rather than our own internal long term resources. (This is improving)

Viewing 538 - 540 of 561 Reviews

Glassdoor has 699 Gates Foundation reviews submitted anonymously by Gates Foundation employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Gates Foundation is right for you.