Title: Avoiding Nonprofit Founders Syndrome
Headings: Avoiding 501 (c) (3) Founder’s Syndrome
Avoiding 501 (c) (3) Founder’s Syndrome
Greg McRay, EA

Content: While that can be true, we find that most cases of founder’s syndrome within nonprofits simply involve a founder with too much influence. In plain English, it means that the universe revolves around the founder…and not in a good way. Here is an example of the way it usually works: Sam was an entrepreneur. In this case, a social entrepreneur. Sam had a passionate vision to start an after-school mentoring program for troubled youth. Early on, Sam was able to assemble a board of directors and a pretty good corp of volunteers. Due largely to Sam’s energy and vision, the organization experienced immediate success and grew rapidly. The organization became well known in the community and developed a good reputation. The members of the board pretty much deferred most of the governance responsibility to Sam.