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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
2.0
Oct 13, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart colleagues, mission, pay, benefits, physical space, impact on the world. Some marginal improvements in the culture. CEO ethical and has good ideas. Bill and Melinda are inspiring and the work is really important.

Cons

I’ve been at the foundation for 10 years and the lack of collaboration at exec level remains a challenge. Lot of good talk about culture but everyone knows that senior execs throw each other under the bus and go to Bill to get funding. Loss of top operations leaders (COO earlier, CFO leaving soon), who modeled the right collaborative behavior and culture attributes, has been disheartening. Commute to/from east side getting worse and worse.

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Gates Foundation Response
8y
Thank you so much for your frank feedback. Based upon your tenure, I have to believe you are committed to the mission of the foundation. I thought you might begin seeing the improvements at both the ELT and director level so I'm a bit surprised by your review. Would you be willing to share your experiences with me or one of my colleagues directly? Thanks pam.yanchik@gatesfoundation.org
3.0
Mar 27, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-These are the smartest people I've ever worked with. Very little "dead weight" that you find at other organizations in this field. Most people here are here because they want to be, otherwise they could make a lot more money in big pharma. -Compared to other non-profits, staff are very well supported (in terms of assistants, travel, etc.) Probably less than private sector though. -No easy problems. The work is always challenging. -Great benefits.

Cons

-The mandate is always expanding, but human resources are closely capped. Always asked to do more with less. -Happiness here really depends on your team. A few teams are really well-managed, and those folks are very happy. But that's the minority. -Really top-heavy structure that focuses on bringing in top talent at the top but does not work to grow their people from within. -Many technical experts put into management positions that are not in their skill set. -Tendency to gloss over the root causes of staff dissatisfaction by having more "team-building" and parties, but not fixing fundamental flaws. -Program assistant and contract staff are often treated wretchedly. We hire all these bright, enthusiastic kids in their early 20s with MAs already who think being a PA is a foot in the door here, but it isn't, and then they are so unhappy in assistant roles.

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Gates Foundation Response
9y
Thanks so much for your feedback. Much of your advice is truly part of the work of me and my team and I would love to sit down to hear from you other ideas. If you'd like to have coffee some time, please reach out to me pam.yanchik@gatesfoundation.org.
2.0
Oct 12, 2016

Information Technology

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Benefits - Location - Employee resources

Cons

- Management/Leadership - Culture - Transparency Zero transparency, always saying the right things but doing the opposite. High-performing individuals get driven out and low-performing individuals get promoted. Management is only interested in managing upwards.

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Gates Foundation Response
9y
Thanks so much for your posting. I'm sorry that you had a less than positive experience. If you have specific feedback, I'd be happy for you to reach out to me directly. As you likely know, we are working hard on Showing Respect, Offering Trust, Being More Transparent and Creating Energy. pam.yanchik@gatesfoundation.org
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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.