Fiscal Sponsor Organizations

Yes, we’ve experienced this a few times. In one situation we had to dissolve the project and one of the two individuals reapplied under a different project name. A second scenario in which the two leads became romantically involved and it imploded, fortunately one of them stepped down. If they’re employees you may need to launch an HR investigation about the claims of abuse. Feel free to email me and we can set up a call to chat further if you’d like.

Ugh, I’m sorry. That’s a tough one. That’s one of the reasons we require Model A’s to have an advisory council. We inform advisory councils that it’s their job to mediate and handle conflict, and we can support the AC if needed. If we have to get involved because there’s a policy violation or legal issue, then we will. I like your idea of starting with an outside mediator first and hoping it can be resolved and de-escalated. Best wishes! Hang in there.

Yes, we’ve had something similar happen a few times as well. In the end, we were able to navigate it without a professional mediator, and one of the leaders eventually stepped down and away from the project. But the experiences caused us to stop entering into agreements with two “co-directors”— we will still do either an agreement with a single project director or a committee, but not the “co-director” or co-lead model. I hope your situation can be worked through without too much strife for all involved!

No. But sorry you’re going through this.