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 and Chief Executive Officer from 1990-2000. She serves on many nonprofit and private sector corporate boards, including the Veteran's Corporation Advisory Board, the Board of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, New York, and the Boards of the Center for Social Initiative at the Harvard Business School and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Management at the Kennedy School. She was Chairman of the national board of directors for the Volunteers of America. Frances Hesselbein is Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal Leader to Leader. She is a co-editor of the book of the same name, as well as the three volumes of the Drucker Foundation Future Series: The Community of the Future, The Organization of the Future, and the best-selling The Leader of the Future, which has been translated into sixteen languages. She also is co-editor of Leading Beyond the Walls, and Leading for Innovation, Organizing For Results, the first two books in the Drucker Foundation Wisdom to Action Series. Her book Hesselbein on Leadership was published in August of 2002. Be, Know, Do: Leadership the Army Way, introduced by General Eric K. Shinseki and Frances Hesselbein was published in February of 2004.

Frances Hesselbein was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor in January 1998. The award recognized her leadership as Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. from 1976-1990 as well as her role as founding President of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, "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 community service, the Board of Directors of the Commission on National and Community Service in August 1991, and his Advisory Committee on the Points of Light Initiative Foundation in 1989. In February 1999, Mrs. Hesselbein was awarded the Legion of Honor Gold Medallion from the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, the Distinguished Alumni Fellows Award from the University of Pittsburgh, and in 2001, the International ATHENA Award. In 2001 Mrs. Hesselbein was awarded the Henry A. Rosso Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Ethical Fund Raising from Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy. In 2002 Mrs. Hesselbein was the first recipient of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Security Series Award, presented by U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Eric K. Shinseki. In 2003, Junior Achievement established a Frances Hesselbein "How To Be" Leadership Award for ethical leadership. In 2004 Frances Hesselbein was presented with the Juliette Award from the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and the 2004 Visionary Award from the American Society of Association Executives Foundation.

Mrs. Hesselbein has presented sessions for leaders of organizations from all three sectors, including National Urban League, American Management Association, Microsoft, Toyota, Catholic Health Association, ASTD International Conference, American Society of Association Executives, Bureau of Primary Health Care, Girl Scouts of the USA, League of California Cities, Executive Women International, Community of Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, ServiceMaster, the U.S. Army, Chevron Texaco, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Lutheran Social Services, KidsPeace, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the World Bank. She has nineteen honorary doctoral degrees and has given commencement addresses and lectures at numerous colleges and universities, including Arizona State, Boston College, Fordham, Harvard Business School, Pennsylvania State College, Princeton Theological Seminary, Stanford, the University of Michigan, University of Nebraska at Kearny, University of Pittsburgh, University of Richmond, University of St. Thomas, Mount Mary College, Union Institute and University, and Yale School of Management. Harvard Business School has published a case study of her work with Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

She has been featured on the covers of Business Week and Savvy magazine as an example of managerial excellence, as well as in an issue of Fortune magazine and Chief Executive on leadership. She was interviewed for the article, "A Matter of Being" in an issue of Association Management. Mrs. Hesselbein appears in the management videotape "The Leader Within" with Dr. Warren Bennis, and moderates or is featured in a number of "The Nonprofit Drucker" series of management audiotapes. Frances Hesselbein was the first woman to be inducted into the Johnstown Pennsylvania Business Hall of Fame and was awarded the Distinguished Citizen of the Commonwealth by the Pennsylvania Society, and Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania by the Governor.

Mrs. Hesselbein chaired a Salzburg Seminar on Managing Non-Governmental Organizations for leaders from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, which was co-sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg and Drucker Foundation. She has spoken at conferences in Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, and Switzerland, and has led Drucker Foundation teams to Argentina, Australia, China, the Philippines, and Poland to present leadership and management seminars.