Frances Hesselbein is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management) and served as its founding President. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, in 1998. The award recognized her leadership as Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. from 1976-1990, her role as the founding President of the Drucker Foundation, and her service as "a pioneer for women, diversity, and inclusion." Her contributions were also recognized by former President Bush, who appointed her to two Presidential Commissions on National and Community Service.

     She serves on many nonprofit and private sector corporate boards, including the Board of the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, the Veterans of Corporation Advisory Board, the Boards of the Center for Social Initiative at the Harvard Business School, the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Management at the Kennedy School, and U.C.S.D. graduate school of International Relations and Pacific Studies.