A Classic Case of Founder's Syndrome

I have a colleague that runs a small nonprofit organization that is on the verge of bringing their programs and fundraising efforts to a national stage, but is having issues with Founder's Syndrome. For those of you who are not familiar with Founder's Syndrome it occurs when a nonprofit is shaped by a strong founder and loses track of a more general mission. Transitions can be difficult when the founder moves on, even with good intentions on all sides. He's worrying about bringing in board members with national stature, deep pockets and incredible connections and the few founders are concerned with local public image and reaching out to the next county, not keeping in mind the ultimate goal. He is playing his cards correctly, keeping them close and continuing to constantly bring up discussions about a national outlook, but as you can imagine it's extremely difficult. He has also worked through setting up a new strategic plan for the organization with the founders, keeping their minds on a broad reach which has been successful.

We constantly bounce ideas back and forth off of each other and one topic that came up is how to effectively "plaque and pack" a founder that has lost focus. After a lengthy talk we kept circling back around to the fact that these men and women have been around the block before. They know when they are being asked to leave but don't know how to, or simply don't want to do it to preserve the integrity of the organization when doing it. So the question remains, how do you get around that? Carter McNamara addresses a lot of these issues in an article he wrote titled Founder's Syndrome: How Corporations Suffer -- and Can Recover . It's written well and answers a lot of questions if you ever find yourself in that situation. Not a fun place to be.