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Most nonprofit organizations go through predictable life cycles. Like other living organisms, they start live, grow, develop into adulthood and mature. For each stage in the life cycle, there are certain challenges, successes and developmental issues. This article is a short overview of organizational life cycles.

A. Start Up

A group of volunteers has a vision and a passion, and develop a project. This model is called “Founding Board.” The work is done by volunteers. Volunteers do the program work, and many of the same volunteers govern the organization by serving on the board. This can become confusing, especially as the organization starts to grow, and core volunteers become stretched by the combined workload of program activity and board service. Critical to early success is the vision of the founding group, and the power of that small core to both carry the work and invite others to become involved. Usually, after a year, or two (or more), the founding group will become tired and burned out, and it will find it cannot sustain the work or the momentum. If the organization is to be successful, it needs to expand the level of support for its project work so that it can hire staff. The organization needs to build a few core sources of financial support.