This past week President Obama gave his annual "sermon" on the subject of democracy. In that speech he explored the topic of pluralism ( a key component of democracy, which he defined as meaning simply that “in a democracy, we all have to find a way to live alongside individuals and groups who are different than us.” He went on further to reiterate James Madison's Federalist Papers applied to the present "as active work to form coalitions over shared issues."
To a great degree and vastly different from most nonprofit boards, Community Health Centers and Community Action Agencies apply the term pluralism and full meaning of democracy. It is of course unlikely that these two entities would necessarily pursue this model but given that federal law mandates it, the commitment is to make it work for the community and institutions. You see, both of these bodies are mandated to have diverse boards with limitations applied to representation e.g. government, business and community (very much mirroring the three legged stool paradigm that essentially frames US democracy.
So these two entities are diverse and mostly representative of the needs of a wide-ranging community. And most importantly they are a coalition of people with shared issues. For nonprofit boards reluctant to pursue diversity and in essence, democracy, take a look at these institutions as a starting point and recognize that they do indeed produce mission-outcomes as intended.