Founder's Syndrome: a difficulty faced by many organizations where one or more founders
maintain disproportionate power and influence following the effective
initial establishment of the project, leading to a wide range of
problems for both the organization and those involved in it. - Wikipedia
Earlier this year, I was tasked with helping a start-up nonprofit gain some ground so that they could meet their goals. They had been meeting as a board for nearly a year and hadn't had much progress. No fundraising had been done. No press releases were sent out. Few locals knew about the organization. It sounded like a great opportunity to be a part of something big, and I jumped at the chance to turn things around. I knew I was the right person for the job. And then, I found out why there was a lack of progress: the founder was calling all the shots, and the blind was leading the blind.
Step 1:
I found out quickly after my contract was signed that there was no funding, no bylaws, and no business or marketing plan. I found out after that that while the Articles of Incorporation were approved, they hadn't submitted said bylaws or a list of board members to the state, which may have been problematic. Then I found out that the board of directors were not big players from the community, rather they were a hodge podge of friends of the founder's with varying levels of prior board experience, from none to minimally involved. Oh, and on top of this, the founder and blind board decided that they were going to throw a gala-level event in 6 weeks as their first fundraiser and had spread that information to the few people in the community that knew about the organization. Add that all up together, and you have a recipe for disaster.
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| http://shirahime.ch/2011/08/the-founder-syndrome-or-for-some-ethical-fashion-businesses-surviving-means-failing/ |
I made a game plan. Within 2 weeks, I had established a business plan, marketing plan, bylaws, policies and procedures, and had selected my first staff member. I had secured 3 television interviews, a newspaper article, and several major meetings in the community. I planned sponsorship and donor levels, ticket prices, and a budget for the over-the-top event. I attempted to teach the board members about how to raise funds and gain support. And then I did the most important, and telling, step of all, I informed the board chair that her involvement with the organization might be a conflict of interest and she had two options: step down as chair or run the organization as a for-profit business.
Step 3:
Within the next month, I realized how little control I had over where the organization was going. The founder stepped down, but still believe she was owed credit and notoriety, and treated the board of directors as puppets. When I received several emails and phone calls about developing a "management plan" for the founder, I knew that the organization was going down the toilet. Just two weeks prior to the gala event, the board voted to cancel. And then shit hit the fan. The founder erupted into a crazy mess, shooting off angry emails, phone calls, text messages, and Facebook messages. The option of having the business run like a business went out the window. She tried to rescind her resignation as board chair, she tried to get her boyfriend on the board of directors, she bullied and harassed those who were her friends, and me, about her slighted feelings.
Step 4:
After the true colors were shown and the board realized that the founder would always want absolute control, they decided that it was not ethical for the organization to continue as a nonprofit, and left the option to continue as a for-profit to the founder. The board were (mostly) innocent bystanders - friends who truly wanted to do good for the community. Friends who blindly followed a misled leader. People who saw their time squandered away for months upon months by meetings that didn't amount to a hill of beans. Most of them saw the big picture; how huge the organization could be for the community. And so they did the only thing that they felt was right: dissolved the nonprofit. Pissed away all of their efforts. After just three months of a roller coaster with what could have been an amazing organization, I was left with nothing: no pay, no work, and no business, all because of founder's syndrome.
What did I learn from this experience?
Most of all - know who you are going to be working with. Had I done more research, I would have known that no amount of work could have fixed the issues that existed with the board and founder. I would have found out that when someone is so blissfully ignorant about realistic business ideas and goals, that you can't convince them that they won't work. I would have known that even the best business or nonprofit coach in the world couldn't turn around the nonprofit of someone who was doing it for all of the wrong reasons; selfish reasons at that.
Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur
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