Pros
Mission-driven organization with potential for impactful work.
Kontras
As a man, society and this culture have offered me a lot of privileges that made me oblivious to certain crucial issues in this world, including inequitable workplaces. For most of my career, I was privileged enough not to worry or even think about workplace equity issues until I found myself working at Springboard Collaborative and noticed all the shocking inequitable practices. Leaving there was the best decision for my career. The work environment is extremely toxic. If you’re not skilled in office politics, your contributions and skills will likely go unrecognized, and you will be taken advantage of, regardless of your race, color, or gender. The leadership team and HR preach about equitable work practices, but this is largely for show. When it comes to action, their behavior is far from equitable. Lower-level employees are consistently denied raises and promotions, while those in leadership enjoy substantial salary increases. I encourage everyone to review the organization's 990 forms online. If you compare their 990 forms from 2021 to 2022, you can see the bump. The head of HR and the Business Strategy person, who are primarily responsible for creating policies, systems, and anything related to promotion and compensation, and who have been telling all employees to adhere to the normal process, received over $50-60K salary increases. Many others in the leadership team received similar significant raises while the rest of the organization was told that raises were not possible due to a revamping of the promotion and salary increase process. Those who did receive raises got the bare minimum. It's concerning to think how much more the leadership salaries might have increased since then. I have worked in many other companies before, but what I saw, especially for a nonprofit workplace, is quite disturbing. Springboard Collaborative presents itself as a champion of equity, but the reality within the organization is starkly different. Advancement seems contingent on who you know rather than merit, creating a culture where only those connected to the people in power can move up the ladder.