How is the model different for an equity corporation?
The set of concepts and principles that comprise the model are not different. The most useful words to communicate those concepts can be different. For example, “ownership” for equity companies is the body of shareholders unless public policy causes other groups to be included (as is labor in some European instances), just as trade association members are owners of a trade association. While nonprofits often find the idea of ownership a bit alien, they can understand the idea. The place where language can be problematic, however, is with beneficiaries those persons whose lives the organization exists to change. For this group, nonprofits and sometimes government often use the words customer, client, student, or other such recipient group. But for an equity corporation to use the word customer would miscommunicate, since the beneficiaries for whom an equity company exists are shareholders. Thus, for them, owners and beneficiaries are the same people, just as is typically the case in tra
