NCSS Reviews

CEO often claims and steals credit for herself and for those she favours. While she preaches that SMT and HODs should be responsible for leading the transformation and sector developer work, she does not put into practice what she preaches and pushes the responsibility of leadership down to the DCE and the directors who make the real effort to do the heavy lifting, and puts the blame on them and others when there's feedback. She only appears to take over and be hands on when majority of the negotiations and tough work have been completed.

A truly bureaucratic behemoth that is due for an overhaul. Processes are outdated, and teams are still using and maintaining their own Excel 'Mega" worksheets to manage donations and other transactions instead of putting the CRM they've invested to good use. People only use it to check on historical transactions but don't update or use it for analytics. There is heavy involvement from external stakeholders through signature events making the planning of events challenging. When you ask about the strategy to drive donor engagement, no one seems to articulate it. They run their regular yearly events that are more recognition than fundraising in nature. But that is improving somewhat. Another concern is too many young HODs with no real industrial experience beyond their time with NCSS. Many of them came up through the ranks or transferred from other agencies. They survive by being in cliques and tribes, so don't be surprised if you are considered an outsider. You will hear of the mass exodus of good staff who have had enough of the status quo. If you think you can do good by joining, I would think twice and consider joining an SSA instead. You can see a direct impact there as opposed to this place.