{"id":1389,"date":"2019-08-02T10:52:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T10:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/2020\/12\/23\/exit-right-nonprofit-founders-must-plan-transition-well\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T07:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:59:43","slug":"exit-right-nonprofit-founders-must-plan-transition-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/exit-right-nonprofit-founders-must-plan-transition-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit right: Nonprofit founders must plan their transition well"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founders are passionate and usually stubborn, two qualities that make for their organisation’s growth from an idea to an institution. Many founders rightly believe that they have it in them to do what’s best for the organisation, and for a long time to come. There are very few examples of organisations that have failed because the founder ran it for a long time.<\/p>

However, recent years have seen an increase in discussion around what’s called “founder’s syndrome (or founderitis).” The internet defines it as a “difficulty faced by organisations 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 the organisation.”<\/p>

Related article: A founder’s guide to transition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

\"What<\/a><\/div>

There are several assumptions that the diagnosis of the syndrome makes, and some of them are that:<\/p>