Todd Cohen in the Philanthropy Journal News reflected on the state of nonprofit boards today beginning with my good friend Peter Dobkins Hall's statement in the New York Times (about the Red Cross ED firing) that "the Red Cross Board has been a board of denial".

Todd goes on to say that "Disengaged, clueless and weak, boards are sucking the life out of nonprofits".  He suggests that nonprofits need to "shake their boards out of their fog of denial", and begin recruiting with better criteria.

Sure, I say.  All true.  But let's not forget, particularly in the largest of nonprofits, the role the Exec and senior management play to help boards stay in denial.  Execs wield significant influence and power (overt and covert) in providing information, facilitating conversation, and often times, actively determining who is recruited, what roles members serve, and the nature and outcome of decisions. 

Nonprofit boards may be in denial much of their board life and this is not acceptable.  But nonprofit boards may not actually have all the wherewithal to pull themselves out of the state they are in as long as their execs wield the amount of power they are given.