Pros
Catalyst provides important services to the communities that they serve
Cons
Catalyst is a toxic work environment emblematic of many nonprofits that believe employees should martyr themselves for the "mission". Catalyst demands all your time- your weekends, your evenings, your personal time, and even your extracurricular time for a salary not much better than minimum wage. They have a plantation mentality that translates to once they pay you, they own you. They try to prevent you from engaging in consulting, being on boards, or other activities even when they don't conflict with the work you do there. However, they have no issue loaning you out to other plantations as a consultant and taking that money. They tried to convince an employee to miss an immigration appointment for work activity. Even tohugh they told me that they understood that I needed to use my weekends to look for an apartment, they tried to guilt me one weekend for apartment hunting rather than spending my Saturday with Catalyst in the pouring rain. They are perpetually understaffed and under-resourced. While I was there, I was my entire team because the person working under me got fired, the events manager quit, and there was no money to hire an intern. Additionally, although I was hired as the Policy Director, a week after I began working, they tacked on an additional job to my title as Policy Director making me Policy and "Community Engagement" Director- a completely separate and unrelated role. Of course, no additional salary bump came with that, neter did I get any additional resources or support. The most troubling aspect of Catalyst, however, it is their lack of ethics. Catalyst spies on their employees and reads their emails. They even went through my personal emails and printed out copies. There were days when I worked there that the place had no AC or power yet they have the resources to hack your emails...When they found out through hacking into my personal emails and chats that I planned to quit upon returning from vacation, they fired me instead.