Angels of the Children and Families, Inc: a Review

Over two years ago, I did some volunteer work for Angels of the Children and Families, Inc., and it didn’t end well. I wrote a review of the organization on VolunteerMatch, and after two years, the review has been removed for violation of their terms of use and community guidelines.

Strange how that took so long.

Well, here it is:

I intended to start working with this non-profit in the capacity of a web developer/webmaster. While I believe the cause is excellent and the organizer has the connections to take the idea very far, I found working with her to be infeasible due to the level of uninformed technical control she wanted to have.

I found the organizer unwilling to trust in technical expertise (I would recommend she interview for positions in the future to increase her comfort level) and unwilling to learn on her own when my repeated explanations weren’t enough for her.

Again, great idea and potentially great execution, but the organizer’s management style wasn’t conducive to me doing what we agreed I would do.

At the time, I would not recommend working with the organization, and rated my experiences 1/5 stars.

I can’t speak to Ms. Berry’s attitude with respect to her volunteers two years after my dealings with her, but my experiences were valid and may prove informative to people considering working with the organization. I’m also certainly disappointed that my review was flagged and removed.

Edit:

This post isn’t about some vendetta against VolunteerMatch (or Angels of the [etc.]), but if one is curious as to the details of the Community Guidelines and doesn’t want to create a VolunteerMatch account in order to see them, here they are as of the date/time of this post:

Please DO:

• DO write reviews that are specific and detailed. The best reviews are based on personal experience at a particular organization, and offer helpful insight that will enable other volunteers to make informed decisions.
• DO try to include specific qualities that make the organization stand out to other volunteers.
• DO provide observations about the organization’s work environment and interactions you had with the organization’s staff or volunteers. These details can help other prospective volunteers determine the kind of experiences they are looking for.
• DO give credit where credit is due.
• DO make your criticisms (if you have any) constructive and thoughtful.
• DO be respectful of others’ views.

Please Do NOT:

• Do NOT use VolunteerMatch Recommendations & Reviews as a platform to air personal grievances or make personal attacks against causes or individuals.
• Do NOT use vicious, lewd, or discriminatory language or hateful speech. VolunteerMatch reserves the right to remove inappropriate content and delete user accounts.
• Do NOT post private or confidential information such as full names, email addresses, or physical addresses.
• Do NOT violate the VolunteerMatch Terms of Service & Use or Privacy Policy.