You think it will be different for you, but it won't - Associate Director JUMP! Foundation Employee Review

Kind, passionate, talented team of facilitators and middle management. Made incredible friends along the wat

The ED and some of the executive leadership team is manipulative, untrusting, and puts their employees in compromising positions in terms of immigration. Staff have been turned away at borders and even detained; JUMP! did not step in to help. I have held more than 10 employers in my life and have yet to meet a leader as cocky and toxic as their ED. You would think JUMP’s leadership would lead in a similar way they teach students to lead, but it is leadership from a place of fear and mistrust, not of true belief in the power and potential of their staff.

The people JUMP brings together are some of the greatest people I've ever met. They bring passion, warmth, and talent to the organization that has a positive impact on youth. The experience for a facilitator allows meaningful opportunities to connect with people, partnerships, and beautiful places around the world they can then share with their students. The projects you can get involved with allow a lot of opportunities to learning and professional growth.

The co-founder/executive director breeds a toxic work culture, which becomes especially apparent for those who work full-time for the organization. You can work as hard as you ever have and it still won't be seen as good enough. Their full-time staff retention is dismal. People get burned out and frustrated with the organization, rarely lasting longer than a year or two, then leave for bigger and better things. Both the ED and COO lack much leadership experience outside of JUMP and it shows. Senior leadership doesn't inherently trust the people they hire, even when the people they hire are more experienced than they are in the field. They gossip more than actually communicate feedback effectively to folks who work for them. Talented and caring people will be hired, given little training, then are asked to essentially function as robots on an assembly line building programs as quickly as possible, sometimes with only a few days notice. Then those people are blamed when things don't work out perfectly, rather than blaming the flawed system they are working in. Staff maintain an optimism that things will get better, but it never does. JUMP may continue to expand, but the poor management of people remains the same. People who leave the organization are often seen as traitors. While you can learn a lot in the process, it's hard to say that working for people who make you feel like you'll never be good enough is worth it in the end.