This qualitative, multiple case study looked at the emerging organizational identity of four charter schools during the early years of development and the influence of the founder on that developing identity. The study looked at the ways in which each founder's sensemaking and sensegiving behaviors may have influenced the organizational identity of the school as perceived by each school's organizational members including the founder, the executive director, the principal, board of trustee members, and teachers. A critical conceptual foundation of the study was that charter schools are entrepreneurial organizations that have life-cycles of growth and development. Future research opportunities in sensemaking and sensegiving, development of entrepreneurial organizations, and organizational identity of emerging organizations resulted from findings of this study. The four charter schools in this study reported four separate stages of development that might be generalizable to other independent, not-for-profit, emerging charter schools. It was found that the educational philosophy, mission and vision are structural foundations for the emerging charter school that become the school's organizational identity through sensemaking and sensegiving by the founder and/or organizational members. It was also found that the educational philosophy, mission, and vision inexorably link the founder with the charter school. The skills required for a school's founding were discovered to be different from those required to implement the vision and manage the school. The concept of "founder's syndrome" described founders who remained in key leadership positions and were unable to execute the tasks required for implementing their vision. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]