Positive mission but toxic executive culture - Administrative Ascend Dallas Employee Review

Great place to work. The culture of the organization is inclusive and caring. The team is hardworking and collaborative. There is opportunity to learn and grow. The leadership team invests in the employees through training and growth opportunities. I've been able to stretch and grow and appreciate my boss' support. There used to be a lot of toxic people here, but fortunately over the past year or so they were held accountable for their behaviors and have left. It's much better now.

working for a nonprofit is hard. The agency is doing fine, but like any nonprofit, I wish there were more resources to do some bigger ticket, big dream ideas.

• The mission itself is powerful and deeply needed in the community. • Opportunities to gain broad nonprofit experience and build relationships with donors and partners. • Colleagues and board members who genuinely care about the impact.

In my experience: • Leadership is inconsistent, unclear, and often avoids accountability while holding staff to shifting or unrealistic standards. • Micromanagement is common, yet when staff reach out for guidance or decisions, leadership is unresponsive—creating constant bottlenecks. • There is a pervasive lack of trust from the top down, which undermines morale and collaboration. • Expectations and responsibilities are constantly changing without proper communication, making success nearly impossible. • Feedback is vague, inconsistent, or withheld altogether—employees are left in the dark until it’s too late. • HR functions more as a shield for leadership than as a support for staff; performance management is non-existent. • High turnover, acknowledged internally but never meaningfully addressed, damages morale and organizational stability. • When staff are let go, leadership can be either retaliatory or completely dismissive, leaving employees with no sense of closure or fairness. • Culture of favoritism and closed-door decision-making erodes trust and fuels burnout.