Bonterra reviews

Bonterra is a Frankenstein company assembled three years ago by a private equity firm out of four companies that have almost nothing in common aside from having non-profits as clients. While each legacy company had its own culture and mission, Bonterra has attempted to assimilate the new organization through force. Ultimately, however, the mission of "make money for our investors" and a culture of toxic positivity pales in comparison to how things used to be. This has ultimately resulted in two different classes of employees. The first class are people with low expectations. They don't question management and often don't come from the non-profit world. To them, the job is just a paycheck and questioning management is tantamount to insubordination. They either have never been at a company that treats them properly, or simply don't care as long as they have a job. Some of these people were brought in from the CEO's old companies specifically because of this viewpoint. In general, these people toe the company line and appear to be happy with the way things are going. If this sounds like a place you want to work, then Bonterra might be for you. The second class are legacy employees from the original companies who remember how things used to be and are frustrated and angry at how Bonterra has failed them and their clients. These employees are knowledgeable and passionate, but have been ignored and marginalized. They want to work at a company that values their experience and sees clients as partners, not paychecks. They want transparency, to be heard, and accountability from management. Unfortunately, that's not what Bonterra is any more, and these folks are often torn between desperately wanting to serve their clients and their important missions and an organization that is stubborn, arrogant, and ignorant. If you have read the other reviews, you see that there is a resentment between the first and second class of folks. I predict the first class will eventually triumph through a war of attrition. Of course, in this war there will be no real winners - the clients will suffer, the employees will be miserable, and the investors will (deservedly) lose their investment.

Most of the positive reviews here are fake and generic, I assure you this one is not. It's a sinking ship. Significant operational gaps, are costing the company millions. Leadership has prioritized their egos rather than fixing these issues, and so 2.5 years into being bonterra the company is still unable to operate with any sort of ease or accuracy. With a lack of progress on fixing systems or internal processes, customers are still not onboarded properly, sales leads are constantly lost in the funnel, invoices go past due or never get collected, employee's paychecks are lost or wrong, etc. etc. etc. ---- these operational gaps are costing millions in missed revenue and causing so much disruption on a day to day basis, that to call Bonterra a "dumpster fire" is simply not doing this dysfunctional, floundering, sinking ship justice. The ship already hit the iceberg, and the lifeboats are gone. The PE firm is pushing to get their money back, but they'd do better to dismantle the brands and let go of the Bonterra vision like Rose let go of Jack. It's a revolving door. Bonterra is 2.5 years old, on its 3rd CEO and 3rd leadership team, who in 1 year has done nothing but lay off staff, destroy morale, and create a fluffy vision for "3% by 33" -- a vision that majority of customers and employees do not even connect with (but good luck sharing feedback - it will fall on all deaf ears). 3 layoffs in a year have killed morale and caused the company to lose critical employees and knowledge that is needed for success. It is now to the point where employees are placing bets on how long it takes someone to quit & they are "hoping they get laid off" to get severance instead of suffering through the days. Transparency and collaboration died the day Bonterra formed. The new leadership could care less about the legacy brands, or what did and didn't work in making them successful. The environment is not collaborative, where ideas are formed and workshoped with teams to make them better, don't believe any review that says that to be the case. Even something as simple as pitch decks aren't shared with sales/product marketing managers for review prior to company roll out-- and thus teams end up with decks that customers hate. There is absolutely no transparency or collaboration happening outside of the ELT (who has no NPO market experience), and thus decisions continue to be made in ways that haven't worked before, and won't work again. Lack of growth. Not only is there a lack of growth due to constant team restructures, downsizing, and layoffs... the new leadership continues to bring in pals (colleagues leadership worked with at their previous company) instead of promoting talent. This is not a handful of instances, where a new backfill was more qualified than existing talent getting laid off, this is a pattern that shows that leadership does not practice what they preach and would rather clear house to bring in their own, than provide growth opportunities. Salaries & benefits are not competitive. Managerial training is non-existent. DEI efforts, workforce culture, and HR at Bonterra are all pretty abysmal. No new products, no real product roadmap, nothing happening to innovate.