The guy (Jimmy Wales) over at Wikipedia, (a nonprofit) is having some challenges. These are not the unusual challenges facing small business owners who are really successful. Take for instance the break-up with a newspaper writer and her putting some of his clothing on ebay (after all, the Wikipedia founder's "experienced" clothing must be worth something in the auction market place).
All this humor aside, the guy at Wikipedia is being treated and followed like any successful small business owner. This would be fine except, the guy at Wikipedia is founder and director of a nonpofit. Yes, Wikipedia is a nonprofit. There's a board of directors. There's policies and procedures (I like to believe). There's public accountability.
But I certainly wouldn't know this from the way the guy at Wikipedia is storied. If I were a board member, I would be having some serious conversations about Jimmy Wales. As a board member, I would be Wikipedia's owner, not Jimmy Wales.
Maybe or maybe not. Maybe Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia represents the new nonprofit where board members don't really matter that much as long as the bottom line or anything else doesn't get board members personally in trouble. And maybe this is the future of nonprofits, just like it has been for some of the nonprofits whose founders never really transfer ownership to the public.