"Best practices" is, as one writer put it, a "rubber term." It means a variety of things. So, we called a number of grantmaking professionals -- and asked them to define what the term means to them.

Responsiveness

It's a mixture of the right amount of due diligence on our part, responsiveness to grantees and applications, clarity about our mission and what we can fund. It's about transparency and accountability-a fair, careful review of proposals; a prompt response time. These are external, but there are internal best practices, as well-to be clear to ourselves and our board about what we want to achieve. We're always looking for models in strategic planning, design, evaluation and dissemination. I find it invaluable to read annual reports and speak with colleagues and grantees. You have to be open to learning, trying to find more effective approaches.
Patricia Rosenfield, Program Officer,
Carnegie Corporation of New York, New York City

Standards

Best practices are a set of standards or recommended guidelines. We're always trying to look at what others are doing-for example, how others handle matching-grant programs. By learning from what others are doing, we can try to make our own gifts more effective.
Colleen Maher, Program Officer,
Mitsubishi Electric America
Foundation, Washington, DC

Fill in the Blank

Best practices would be an accepted or agreed upon standard of…fill in the blank: grantmaking, accounting, grants management, etc. I'm in communications. I'm constantly seeking out the best communications practices broadly, within the philanthropy field, everywhere. But each different area of expertise has a different way of sharing its own experiences.
Lynne Woodman, Director of Communications,
The Cleveland Foundation

Service-Minded

The term is a worn cliché. It's useful as in-house jargon, but when talking to nonprofits it sounds arrogant. To me, it's a quality customer service approach to donors, prospects, clients and advisors-like a same-day or 24-hour turnaround on questions asked. I take them from a variety of publications and colleagues. I'm always looking for ideas, so I can grab them wholesale and plunk them into my projects. I share them one-on-one in phone conversations and meetings, as well as in workshops that I conduct.
Greg Lassonde, Gift Planning Officer,
Community Foundation Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, CA

Good Examples

The term refers to examples of good professional practices employed to deal with a particular issue. When we're in a new program area, we look around the country at organizations that are doing a good job and see what they're doing that makes them successful-we learn from them so we're not isolated. We also encourage people locally to use best practices ideas in their projects.
We share them through our newsletter. We also like to bring grantees in similar areas together to pool ideas.
Larry Coppard, Senior Consultant,
Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, Detroit

"Learnings"

It's a term of art used to describe innovative and effective approaches to addressing issues or problems. Keeping up on them helps in dealing with the range of judgment calls that'll cross your desk. We don't communicate them very well, though. I think it requires a huge amount of time to describe your own successes, failures and learnings to the field at large.
Patricia Jenny, Project Director,
New York Community Trust

Double E

Best practices are when leaders in the field try to describe the elements of how to operate most efficiently and effectively. I track them through on-line discussion forums and affinity groups.
Kristin Croone, Director of Planned Giving, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis