Catholic Relief Services Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services full-time for more than a year

Pros – Very family friendly
good opportunities for growth (if you have the right friends in the right places)
seeks to be transparent
values-oriented
important focus on management quality and innovation
quality of the programs are exceptional
well-recognized and respected in the field
variety of jobs and posts available
focuses on holistic approach to development and aid work

Cons – political, especially with regard to promotions which can lead to hypocracy and disappointment
archaic process systems that bleed inefficiency
executive leadership unable to foster culture of change and innovation among staff; behind the wheel on adopting internal process structures that promote efficiencies and management quality (a work in progress)
management and program quality sometimes work in silos, unwillingness to bridge the gaps for greater overall improvement

Advice to Senior Management – put an end to the political and non-transparent way of promoting people, set clear standards and criteria for transfer of positions and posts and implement them
continue improving the way you have started towards innovation and better management quality

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Seems to be some good organizational progress and company strategy and vision are being addressed. Good benefits and generally decent people. This may be a nice place to work if helping others is of interest, but that depends on what job you are looking to do.

Cons – Lower pay than average in some cases. Sometimes unreasonable expectations. There is more internal chaos, both intra- and inter-departmental, than is preferable. One big downside seems to be the lack of internal support, instead much of the effort is spent on external programs and resources.

Advice to Senior Management – I think some close scrutiny of each department should take place in order to determine if agency goals are being accomplished in the proper manner. I do not mean ask the management - I mean get down in the trenches and find out what is really happening in the headquarters and overseas offices.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Catholic Relief Services full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great mission, many deeply committed staff.

Cons – Employees no longer valued as they were.

Advice to Senior Management – Bring back Catholic Social Teaching as a basis for human resource management.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great benefits, a true sense of helping out in the World. Strong family values and work/life balance.

Cons – Siloed organization, poor communication. Need to modernize communication and systems.

Advice to Senior Management – Update technology systems. Centralize marketing and communication efforts. Focus on doing less programs.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services

Pros – Good organization systems and idea's for providing assistance to poor communities

Cons – Poor Management on Country program and Regional level, too many promotions thru "friendship connections"

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on the primary role of the organization assisting poor communities, less internal politics

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services

Pros – Interesting work, organization and people fully committed

Cons – Stretched a little thin at times

Advice to Senior Management – Get grassroots information more often

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services

Pros – Excellent programming and learning opportunities. Great opportunity for growth.
Good pay with great benefits, generous housing allowance, generous COLA, great employees. The management team and the organization in general seems to focus on the needs of those of us who work overseas.

Cons – The management team in the field could be better leaders and managers;

Advice to Senior Management – I would like to see more women in top leadership roles.
I would like to see CRS place human resources staff in the field; currently we don't have an objective HR person to talk to about work issues.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Catholic Relief Services

Pros – CRS has a great program called the International Development Fellows program which allows recently Masters graduates or others with at least this experience to gain valuable experience in international development and project management. Most fellows are offered a permanent position after 6-10 months.

CRS also seems to really try to follow its Catholic Social Teaching principles in the workplace.

Cons – Overseas positions generally lead you to work as a slave if you're any good at what you do, and there can be little to no work-life balance. There is a high degree of burnout.

The managerial skills of senior staff based overseas is of varying quality and it can be difficult to maintain motivation if you end up in a country program with mediocre leadership.

Advice to Senior Management – I would really like to see more attention paid to ensuring that overseas staff have reasonable workloads and that there is no internal pressure to perform miracles or compensate for other underperforming staff. A number of talented individuals have left the agency because they have not felt supported in this area.

Former Employee – worked at Catholic Relief Services

Pros – Catholic Relief Services has a very compelling mission based upon Catholic Social Teaching. This approach recognizes the intrinsic human rights of all people, takes a pro-poor approach, and values working with local communities through grass roots approaches. The organization is very good about promoting from within and there are great opportunities to move up within the organization. With offices in just under 100 countries, international staff have lots of opportunities to travel around the world and to work on behalf of the worlds most disadvantaged populations.

Cons – CRS receives much (though far from all) of their funding through the US government. This means that CRS much match its approaches to those favored by the government. This is particularly problematic (in my opinion) in the area of monetization, the practice through which the government provides subsidized US farm commodities to country programs around the world. CRS then sells these commodities on the open market and uses the proceeds of the sale to finance their activities. This approach is not supposed to negatively impact the local market, but it does. CARE has decided not to no longer accept monetization funding, which is admirable.

Advice to Senior Management – Move away from monetization and seek more alternatives to US government funding.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Catholic Relief Services

Pros – Note: This is written from the perspective of a program manager who worked overseas in spite of location given as Baltimore, USA. CRS is a major organization in the international development and relief industry so it has many opportunities for work overseas especially in challenging environments. For those who can work in difficult conditions, CRS offers extensive opportunity. The benefits package and conditions for international staff living overseas are good. If you are comfortable working with a Catholic organization, believe in conventional international development and relief work, and want a long-term career in developing countries, CRS is a good option.

Cons – There is a tendancy to take on very large programs that are sometimes beyond the capacity of the organization to implement well. There is sometimes a conflict between CRS policies intended to promote good quality programming and pressures to execute projects that are donor driven (both public and private donors are at fault in this). Thus policies and practices in place are not followed fully in the field. Some environments are high-pressure and the workload is high, thus maintaining a good work-life balance is difficult. CRS frequently has difficulty staffing positions for highly technical work or in difficult environments thus staff who are in place have high work loads. As a large organization, CRS can be slow to innovate.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on technical capacity and overseas operations, especially in providing more frequent and dynamic support to country programs.