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Giving Assistant

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Giving Assistant Reviews

3.9

69% would recommend to a friend

(60 total reviews)

Thomas Galido

72% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Giving Assistant has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 60 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Giving Assistant employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

60 reviews
2.0
19 Feb 2021

Headed down the tubes now

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

At one time, the company was made up of caring, driven people working earnestly to help nonprofits fundraise. For a while, too, the company was very product-driven, with a fantastic balance and relationship between engineering, product, and design. User research was cross-departmental and used at every stage of product development. A massive rebrand helped put accessibility first and gave the company a more modern, empowering, and inspiring look (before it was pulled back by a poor leadership decision). The onboarding flow inspires giving and improves the choice of a nonprofit to give to while shopping, making a tough choice much easier with recommendations and a visibility into the impact of the donations.

Cons

A few months into 2020, some additions to the team on the marketing and operations side (newly the CEO) were early signals of the companies slide into troubles. There was clear nepotism in one hire and the way the new hire conducted himself while he was still interviewing by using business data that only his recently hired sister could have provided him to assist in his presentation to the interview panel. It was disappointing that the board decided to bring on this new, costly leadership hire to then carry out layoffs of 1/3 of the work force, which simply could've been avoided by other already present leaders sorting out the finances instead of requiring an outsider to lay down such a heavy sentence. This absolutely killed morale, with current employees scrambling to interview and leave the sinking ship. It was also remarkable transparent that a separate new hire on the marketing leadership, now promoted to COO, was so inadequate in her management of a rebrand project, that it seemed easiest for her to shirk responsibility of its hasty rollout and blame/layoff the entire design department instead, as well as a director of product. While cheaper to turn to a design agency (with little experience in digital product design) for future work, it lacks vision and experience with design that you'd expect in senior management, and it always was questionable to hear her claim years of experience that a simple check of her LinkedIn invalidated.

1.0
20 May 2021

Ship's been sinking for over a year now

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you got laid off last year, at least you can say you entered a new chapter of your life with dozens of FANTASTIC and beautiful friends you'll always be able to count on. (Many of whom also probably got let go.) There are still a few good people there that are seriously so smart and fun and incredible, and so resourceful that if given the room and permission I can guarantee you they could single-handedly bring this company back to life and change the world with it. If they can't save GA, you will want them at your company.

Cons

Those good people probably won't be given the room and permission to do much. They definitely aren't being given room to actually help people. I was laid off many months ago (huge, barely justifiable layoff right before the holidays no less) but am simply hopping on the review bandwagon here to give other brave reviewers a lift. You would not BELIEVE the people they laid off. People who built the product FROM SCRATCH. In other words, they fired people who built this super rad charity-supporting spaceship like "Hey OMG nice ship!! I'm just gonna take it now, thanks byeeeee", got in the driver's seat like "lol how hard could this possibly be?" then they got the ship in a tail spin and started looking around at everyone else like "alright which one of you dum dums put the ship in a tailspin cause we're expert spaceship driver's so it CeRtaiNly cOuLdN't be US!!" Moving on, anything you've read about the COO (initials KR) is true. I felt it the MOMENT I met her, but didn't want to believe it, because I genuinely, genuinely believe most people are good, and tend to blame myself for any of negative, first-impression gut feelings I might get. Like, maybe that person was just tired or shy or whatever. But as soon as I finished my first meeting with her, I got off the call and told my partner: "Something's up with that lady." The insecurity was palpable, and to be honest I wanted to just make her feel comfortable. I wanted her to know she didn't have to impress anyone here. If you were with GA, we already knew you were hired because you were amazing and we just trusted each other. It was obvious she wasn't going to trust me or anyone. She brought a friend in with her who took over a role that 1000% should have gone to someone else who had actually been there for a really long time (blatant nepotism). I actually have a feeling the person who brought her in was surprised and disappointed by it too. (I hope so.) Thing is, KR isn't dumb — she's not bad at marketing. She knows things. She's got an edge. As a leader though? ... and COO? ... Of a B corp? So, yeah, this person isn't super great in their role, but you know what? I never really got to know them as a human or see what was in there, and I'm sure there was something redeemable. There always is. I believe in people, and I believe "hurt people hurt people." I'm sad for her and others, but sadness helps us grow. I have compassion for people who hurt others because I know that doesn't happen unless that person themselves was also hurt at some point, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. As for Tom, I only sat through one meeting where he said there wouldn't be layoffs...and then there were layoffs. During that meeting an employee and I were texting each other literally LOLing at how placating he was speaking to us all, not even directly answering our questions. Good news is he was/is apparently also a first grade teacher — and based on how he spoke to a room full of adults, he is probably really good at that and should stick to it. That's a compliment. The world needs more teachers. If you DO take a job here: 1. If you're good close friends with upper management/hella rich, don't worry, you'll be fine. 2. If you aren't, then find the good ones and stay near them. You will LOVE THEM always. Be the change you want to see. Also if you get laid off after working there almost 5 yrs, severance will be barely a month's pay, despite the fact that there's enough money just in board members' pockets alone to cover an additional 2 months and none of them would ever even feel it. So charitable!

2.0
15 Feb 2021

Used to be great

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most people care about the mission. Good career growth/promotion opportunities.

Cons

Executive leadership changed in October 2020 and the culture changed drastically. Executives have blamed others for their own shortcomings. Layoffs and lots of turnover (especially on technology side). It seems like the new leadership is much less mission driven. HR complaints don't seem to be taken seriously.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 60 Reviews

Glassdoor has 78 Giving Assistant reviews submitted anonymously by Giving Assistant employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Giving Assistant is right for you.