★
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Reviews
91% Recommend to a Friend
97% Approve of CEO
Recommend to a Friend
Approve of CEO
Mark Suzman
43 Ratings
Opens the Fishbowl by Glassdoor site in a new window
What people are saying about Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Got a burning question about Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation? Just ask!
On Glassdoor, you can share insights and advice anonymously with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation employees and get real answers from people on the inside.
What are your colleagues talking about?
Find your private company bowl on Community, join the hottest conversation with your colleagues anonymously.
Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
Pros
Cons
- "Work life balance can be challenging to achieve based on the role, depending on if the team is sufficiently staffed, but can be developed with the manager." (in 14 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is not affected by filters.
Race / Ethnicity
- Race / Ethnicity
- Gender
- Sexual Orientation
- Disability
- Parent or Family Caregiver
- Veteran Status
Want more demographic options?
Filter Reviews by Topic
Remote Work
Work Life Balance
Benefits
Coworkers
Culture
Senior Leadership
Career Development
Management
Workplace
Compensation
Diversity & Inclusion
Covid 19
Clear All
Full-time, Part-time
English
Verify your email to use filters. Having problems? Resend email
Found 284 of over 580 reviews
Updated Sep 19, 2023
Popular
- Popular
- Most Recent
- Highest Rating
- Lowest Rating
- 5.0Sep 19, 2023Senior Business AnalystCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Benefits are unmatched anywhere else. Unlimited pto, no healthcare premiums with incredible coverage. Most people are very good within their area of expertise.
Cons
Difficult career progression Pay is not based on performance
- 4.0Jun 21, 2023Senior Program AssistantFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Great benefits and pay, a strong mission, get to work with very smart and talented people, remote and hybrid work
Cons
For the administrative support roles, it is nearly impossible to move to far up the ladder. For higher up roles, they prefer to hire people with outside experience.
- 4.0May 11, 2023Program ManagerFormer Employee, less than 1 yearSeattle, WA
Pros
- Amazing opportunity to work on mission driven work - Welcomed by the team - Lots of access to additional learning outside of my role
Cons
- Very detail focused organization, for what feels like low value details. I probably spent 60% of my time bringing deliverables from 85% to 100% when 90% would probably suffice.
1 - 5.0Apr 27, 2023Program OfficerCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Little to complain - interesting work, interesting folks and mission-driven organization
Cons
Really enjoyed the work here so far - nothing to complain yet!
- 4.0Jan 16, 2022Senior Program OfficerCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Pay and benefits are fantastic. These include six months of paid parental leave (although it used to be a full year) and a contribution to one's retirement fund of 15% your salary. In effect, this means that compensation is 15% higher that the salaries you see quoted. Also, if you work and live in Washington state, there's no state income tax. They have some very talented and experienced people at the foundation, and the mission, of course, is a very fulfilling and meaningful one. The foundation also has a very good reputation in most places, so it's a good line on one's resume, and contacting people with a foundation email address helps a lot in getting responses.
Cons
Ultimately it's Bill and Melinda who make the decisions. They are very involved in the work of the foundation, and _a lot_ of effort goes into preparing for presenting work to them, and it can be quite a political place. There's also an annual strategy review for most teams, so a lot of energy goes into preparing for that every year. The culture is very different from team to team. Some are amazing and collegial; others are absolutely poisonous, so ask around and have 1:1 conversations with people there before joining a team.
19 - 5.0Apr 3, 2023Senior Business AnalystFormer Employee, more than 10 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Fun team environment, great benefits
Cons
Sometime ambiguous job duties, need better role clarity
- 2.0Jul 1, 2022Senior Program OfficerCurrent Employee, more than 5 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Access to resources to invest in important areas
Cons
Constant layoffs and turnover due to consultant-driven strategy changes every couple of years. Institution does not care about employees, no effort to grow or retain, sees no value in institutional knowledge or mature relationships with partners and grantees. No logic, no values to layoffs. Behind the times in many areas because listening to consultants with no content expertise rather than technical experts on staff. Despite the rhetoric, extremely risk averse in grant-making. Delegation of authority (everything above 5 M needs approval at the Presidential level) leads to huge bottlenecks and very slow process--approx. 1 year to make a grant... whether it's for 5 million or 30 million--despite the fact that they obsess about strategy, have yearly portfolio reviews, etc.
17 - 4.0Mar 14, 2023Senior Program Officer, Global HealthFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Amazing working on great mission. Extremely fulfilling.
Cons
Demanding job, but not really a con for someone who is driven.
- 3.0Feb 5, 2023Program OfficerCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearSeattle, WA
Pros
Lots of smart talented people who are trying to move the needle in the best way they know and can.
Cons
Upper management skews towards private sector backgrounds - management consulting, big pharma and may not have the technical expertise or insights to lead global health or development work.
6 - 3.0Nov 17, 2022Anonymous EmployeeFormer Employee, more than 8 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
Mission, salary, amazing benefits, almost unparalleled opportunity for global impact, network, access to major field leaders
Cons
competitive culture, bureaucracy, cookie cutter mold for internal success and advancement, lack of diversity in leadership, not enough time for true innovation and collaboration, pays lip service only to employee reported burnout. Lots of flux right now with governance changes and what it will mean for the organization's future mission and culture.
8
Join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation team
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Reviews FAQs
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5, based on over 580 reviews left anonymously by employees. 91% of employees would recommend working at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to a friend and 71% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has improved by 3% over the last 12 months.
91% of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 3.4 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.8 for culture and values and 3.3 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to be compensation, coworkers, benefits and the cons to be diversity and inclusion, career development, senior leadership.
