Founders can be harmful to organizational sustainability when needed change is stifled or the organization cannot function without that one key individual: one person does not make a community institution.
The vast majority of nonprofit organizations go through a birth-and-growth process that is pretty much the same, no matter the locale or service being provided. And, because of those similarities, most organizations experience the phenomenon known as “Founder’s Syndrome” — a label normally used to refer to a pattern of negative or undesirable behavior on the part of the founder(s) of a organization.
Extract from Surviving Founder’s Syndrome
