United Way Reviews

Pros

United Way Ottawa really did do a lot of good for people in our community. Staff are given summer hours (every other Friday off) to compensate for all the mandatory overtime during the campaign year. The people working there were usually very friendly and wonderful colleagues.

Cons

Management's treatment of staff was very poorly handled. Staff were paid badly, expected to work long hours and volunteer over and above regular hours. Education and experience were not matched with pay or responsibilities: many jobs that required highly skilled and educated people stated in their descriptions that they required only high school level education (and were paid accordingly). During changes in the workplace, all change was communicated terribly to staff, which resulted in a lot of anxiety and discontent among staff.

Advice to Senior Management

So many great people were let go over the past few years for reasons that were never made clear. The UWO is made great by its people and sadly the best are now gone.

Pros

Networking, Relationship Building, Skill Building

Cons

Limited Opportunity for Internal Advancement,

Pros

great benefits, friendly people, challenging work, public exposure, committed to training and development, paid time off generous, family friendly, exciting work

Cons

fundraising is challenging in economic environment, must be creative in setting priorities and using limited resources, must be willing to be a generalist

Advice to Senior Management

Share your wealth of knowledge and experience through more training, mentoring, and coaching. Continue the commitment to development and growing staff members.

Pros

Flexibility
Net-working
Is a Good Cause

Cons

No advancement
Very Disorganized
Very Inefficient (A typical non profit)
Internally-Focused

Advice to Senior Management

Train your middlemanagers

Pros

My coworkers were kind and hardworking people.
I felt that working there gave me a chance to make a real difference in the lives of others.
Management took time out to mentor me.

Cons

I sometimes did not have enough to do.
I felt that the pay was not great.
There was not a lot of hope of making a career there.

Advice to Senior Management

Training could be more thorough.

Pros

Terrific training opportunities at United Way Worldwide. Annual conferences are first-class. UWW President & CEO Brian Gallagher has done and continues to do an outstanding job of taking United Way into the 21st century and integrating an international brand. I work at a large UW in California and have had unlimited learning opportunities over 9 years. My UW has an excellent benefits package and strives for competitive salaries. My UW is doing groundbreaking work to improve people's lives and I am proud to be a part of the team.

Cons

When philanthropic donations are down, like during this recession, UWs are forced to cut back personnel and programs. Another thing that has an occasional downside is that United Ways share the brandname, "United Way." It is a powerful one, but when something goes wrong at a particular UW, every UW feels the criticism because most people don't know that each UW is its own incorporated, independently governed organization. And they don't know that UWs are held to exceedingly high standards of governance by the national organization in order to use the name.

Pros

The United Way provides flexibility, continuity, and an environment that is beneficial to all employees.

Cons

The only downfall is the advancement in salary due to working at a Non profit organization.

Pros

Raises over $20 million locally to distribute to community non-profits.
Mostly dedicated employees.

Cons

Emphasis on employee diversity over employee competence.
They ask for feedback but then don't keep on people who speak up or think outside the box.
Way too laid back culture; incredible waste of work day time.
Top CEO and VP/Directors are very highly paid. The rest of employees are paid at local non-profit levels, which are not a living wage.

Advice to Senior Management

Get aligned between social justice talk and internal hierarchy and compensation.
Too much internal disconnect to really believe in the 'mission.'

Pros

I felt good working for an organization that does such great work in the community. I enjoyed working with members of the community from diverse backgrounds.

Cons

In my four month contract, I worked hard, enjoyed the work I did, and surpassed fund-raising goals. When my contract ended I was praised for my success and graciously thanked for my participation. However, opportunities for further employment with them were not offered, and my attempts to reach out to my former managers have been received unenthusiastically. Now I feel like I was just worked hard and ultimately discarded by a large bureaucratic organization.

Pros

The mission of the organization is clearly the reason to work there - making a positive impact in the community is almost worth what they put you through as an employee.

Cons

Decision making process changes continuously. there is high turnover among senior leadership which causes instability. The biggest problem is that the executives say the right things but then do whatever is convenient at the moment. They talk the talk but they don't walk the walk.