To whom are nonprofits accountable?

"Most community organizations will admit they do not currently "work with" as much as they "work for" their communities and program participants. The relationship between program participants and those organizations is most often the one-way relationship of the top-down, provider-knows-best Charitable Model, rather than a real give and take. But if the party to whom a provider organization holds itself accountable is the person whose individual life that organization is affecting, that relationship will logically be quite different. The same often holds true for an organization's interactions with the community. "Going out to the community" is more often a euphemism for "asking for support" (and most often financial support) than it is a real dialogue about determining how to create a better future together."