Can you imagine your doctor practicing medicine without a clear understanding of best practices? (“Now let me see, some docs prescribe a 2 day course of penicillin, the guy down the hall says 15 days, but I think 4 days are about right.”)

Or … hiring a lawyer who worked only on intuition, ignoring case law … or an accountant who never heard of standard accounting procedures?

Of course not. But sadly, that’s the way the fundraising trade is too often practiced. Old wives tales, myths and so-called and often conflicting ‘best practices’ picked up from the occasional conference or webinar.

As indicated in earlier in our Barriers to Growth series, I consider the near-absence of documented best practices and insufficient collaboration in our sector two of the top ten reasons why so many fundraising programs have plateaued or are declining.

It’s time all of us were more aggressive, more disciplined in finding out what works — and what doesn’t. No excuses.

Whether you work in a tiny or gigantic organization, there’s a wealth of tested and empirically proven techniques and approaches that are available for the asking — and sharing.

By way of illustration, for fundraisers in public broadcasting there’s the Contributor Development Partnership (CDP) formed to analyze fundraising data and share best practices among broadcasters. For details on how CDP works check out the detailed article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

All the stations participating in CDP share and pool their data which is analyzed to produce ‘best practice’ benchmarks on such efforts as monthly giving, thank you calling and other strategies. The result? Participants learn from each other. Their numbers go up. Sharing and learning help everyone improve.

Perhaps you’re not part of a network of nonprofits or other formal benchmarking and sharing efforts. But certainly you have friends and colleagues in other organizations. Why not at least set up your own sharing and collaborative effort?

Chuck Longfield, long a pioneer in benchmarking and the chief scientist at Blackbaud along with Michael Heiplik, the head of CDP offer these keys to a successful benchmarking and sharing effort:

Trust. Participants must know that their data is secure and will be used only for the collaborative effort as defined.

Respect. The effort should be seen as a grassroots-type give-and-take, where each member has something valuable to offer. It’s also crucial to respect the independence of each participating group, focusing on fundraising practices that can be adopted nationally without watering down local brands.

Follow-up. A benchmarking effort is worthwhile only if the findings lead to changes. Information-sharing plans, collaborative programs, or pooled-resource services must be in place to help organizations capture the fundraising potential identified in the reports.

Whether you join an already existing benchmarking and data-sharing network or organize a ‘Do It Yourself’ version among nonprofits in your community, the point is to start collaborating. Start sharing. Stop relying on intuition and myth.

What are you doing to boost your turns through collaboration and sharing?

Roger