Instead of shareholders, we speak of stakeholders. With help from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Assembly has been exploring ways to provide stakeholder perspectives to nonprofit boards. That doesn't mean that all board members on nonprofit boards should be clients or consumers of services. National and local human service organizations need directors with organizational acumen, fund-raising skills, and networking ability just as much if not more than their corporate peers. But one way for nonprofit boards to be accountable to stakeholders is to hear from them directly by having stakeholders among their directors.
Good governance seems to pay off in the corporate sector.
Oh, in case you wondered, the best board was Campbell Soup Company's, where directors recently conducted a model search for a new CEO and have initiated performance evaluations for themselves. Coming in dead last was Disney. The board also includes an actor and seven employees of Disney.