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Lutheran World Relief

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A sinking ship - Anonymous employee Lutheran World Relief Employee Review

3.0
17 Jul 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

LWR has an incredible employee benefit package. People who work at LWR are smart and passionate, committed to the mission and vision of the organization.

Cons

The new president, Daniel Speckhard, has come into the organization with a "growth for growth's sake" mentality that is dangerous and unwise. Despite inheriting a healthy organization on a strong growth track, he is disregarding the organization's theory of change (based on improving the lives of our two priority groups) and shifting the focus to money money money. He seems to ignore or disregard the advise and expertise of his very competent staff, which has led to almost 20 people (nearly a quarter of U.S. based staff) leaving the organization in the last year.

Explore other reviews about Lutheran World Relief

5.0
3 Dec 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great place to work and awesome people from around the world

Cons

The commute to Baltimore is long

3.0
3 Jan 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pros and cons really dependent on specific position and who your manager is - the CEO and his team don't do much to try and influence org culture and there isn't much to the high-level org strategy so it's a bit of a mixed bag (for good or ill). Good benefits package (at least for now, that looks like it might be up for discussion soon). Better work-life balance than many competitors (again, depending on supervisor and position). Stable sources of non-restricted funding allow for some creativity and risk-taking although that mostly seems to be spent on CEO's particular projects of interests. Generally good quality of program work but nothing particularly innovative or groundbreaking especially given how much funding could be available for piloting new ideas.

Cons

Current push for growth mostly just feels like grabbing at more money some of the time. Haven't been particularly impressed by the CEO, who is pretty out of touch with staff. Occasional mishires happen (which happens anywhere), but the problem at LWR is they can't rip off the band-aid, acknowledge a mishire, and deal with the problem so there have been issues with incompetent people hanging around in jobs way too long. Smaller org, so often few opportunities for advancement.

7
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