Summary

Many nonprofit organizations continue to be led by their founders, even when it is clear that the founder ought to move on. The assets that a founder brings to an organization (energy, vision, drive) may be critically important to an organization in its infancy, but other assets (attention to detail, ability to manage, organize and systematize) become more important as the organization evolves. A founder`s ability to tell when it is time to move on is therefore just as important as knowing when it is time to start a new organization.

The Background

Let`s see how this might work in practice. Eight years ago, John Davis founded a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide discussion forums for environmental leaders. In the past year, he found it increasingly difficult to maintain the same energy and enthusiasm for the work, but resisted the impulse to move on. After all, he had founded this organization, and who could be sure whether it would continue to succeed under someone else`s leadership. As a result of John`s ambivalence, the organization started to lose focus and momentum until it lost its major funder, which precipitated an organizational crisis. At that point, John felt duty bound to stay on and help restore the organization to a state of health.

The Solution

The phenomenon of founder-induced crisis is all too common in many nonprofit organizations. In this case, the crisis could have been avoided by John making a timely and carefully planned departure before the organization started to decline.

Lessons Learned

A carefully planned departure is often referred to as succession planning, and it involves at a minimum (i) revising staff roles so that the organization can remain operational and strong, (ii) strengthening the board so that it can take a leadership role in hiring and orienting a new executive, and (iii) leaving the organization with a clearly defined vision, mission and set of strategic objectives that will serve as a roadmap during and after the transition period.