My Nonprofit Reviews

My time at PAL towards the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 was disappointing to put it mildly. I initially came to PAL as a volunteer. For 6 years I had run an animal non profit that was to be dissolved in at the end of 2016. Upon hearing of our dissolution, the president and founder reached out to me expressed interest in taking over one of our very successful and much needed programs, a targeted spay and neuter initiative. Our board of directors was in agreement as we believed in the program we had built.

I started working with PAL's President, Kathi to get them set up to run the program. After only a few weeks, I was invited to join the board, which I did as I liked the idea of being able to oversee the program I was bringing over.

Within the first few weeks of my being there, the exec assistant of two years walked out. No notice. Shortly after that, the pantry manager also walked out, no notice, leaving a note and her keys in the middle of the night. As this was happening and the remaining 3 employees (myself included at that time) tried to pick up the slack of the admin asst and pantry manager, it started to become apparent that the president of the org was clueless about the daily operations and there wasn't a single policy, procedure or guideline in place to unite all the team members as to how to go about accomplishing all of the tasks required to run a successful and efficient organization.

It was agreed that we needed to start from scratch and lay the ground work for how the org should operate moving forward. I was seeing some red flags about the way the Kathi operated from her inability to focus on a task to her treatment of some of staff, volunteers and her lifeline, donors, but I had 7 years exp in animal welfare as well as writing policies and procedures...I believed in what the org was doing, I wanted it to be successful.

Just after the holidays, the third employee walked out. Same as the others, no notice. Meanwhile none of these employees were being replaced and myself and the few volunteers we had were expected to pick up the slack for everyone that had walked out in addition to their regular duties and for me, there were also policies and procedures to write.

As the first of the year approached and all of this chaos was going on, Kathi sat down with the board of directors (myself, Kathi and her best friend who goes along with whatever the prez wants) to discuss the 2017 plan. Being in such chaos, I suggested that we take a step back from trying to grow, get a handle on what we have committed to, do it well and then talk about growth. Everyone was in agreement or at least until a few weeks later when Kathi came to me with a grant application for a program we as a board had agreed to hold off on indefinitely. She wanted to apply for the grant and start the program! What!? That was NOT the agreement.

This wishy washy behavior, doing meaningless busy work, irresponsible spending and the inability to decide on a direction and stick to it seemed to be a pattern with the Kathi. In my years working in animal welfare, one of the best mantras I picked up was "stick to your mission." That thought process had served me well and being in the constant chaos at PAL was wearing on me. It was becoming obvious that Kathi was not someone who I saw as successful, competent, kind to staff and volunteers and extremely ungrateful.

Being a professional, I gave 3 weeks notice and planned to part ways with PAL. As my last day approached, I felt positive about the progress we had made in putting policies and procedures in place that would make it easy for both current and future employees and volunteers to accomplish the jobs needed to help PAL serve the community.

Unfortunately that didn't last. We had instituted a new policy involving the pantry, which at that point I was managing. Two times the week prior I had verified that we were sticking to that new policy. Kathi looked me in the eye and confirmed that was to be the policy, no exceptions. With that I planned and packed up the pet food needed for my final week, leaving myself ample time to then train the volunteer that would be overseeing the pantry when I left. When my last week arrived, 15 minutes before pet owner come to PAL's office to pick up their food, Kathi hands me half a dozen food order sheets for clients that would be coming that day to pick up food. Now these are the same clients that TWO TIMES she verified were NOT to get food. Now in the middle of me training the new volunteer, I have to scramble and get all the food together, fill out the paperwork and pack it up in 15 minutes. And if that didn't make for a tense work environment, minutes later she stormed back into my office and began screaming (no exaggeration) at the 70+ yr old volunteer we had answering the phones. She was nothing short of nasty and abusive when she degraded this dear women in front several others.

In conclusion, PAL Humane Society, while under the control of Kathi is not a place I would recommend working for, volunteering your time to or evening donating your hard earned money. Take it from me, who at the dissolution of my non profit, donated several thousands of dollars and never got even a simple "thank you", there so many other organizations out there run by much more competent, kind and grateful people than the lady who heads up PAL Humane.

And no, I no longer sit on their board of directors. Since I don't go along with whatever Kathi wants and have called her out on her ungrateful and abusive behavior she passively aggressively started to ice me out. First my soc media permissions were pulled, then my monthly duties were taken over by someone else without telling me and eventually my emails stopped working. When I confronted her about it, she gave her usual "super busy" excuse and then lied that she didn't know what was going on. Since even in her 70's she can’t be a big girl to face life's confrontations, I did it for her and resigned.