For those nonprofits that need or want to identify new practices, the primary place to find these effective practices will be within your own organization or among peer networks of nonprofit organizations that serve a similar purpose and population. A nonprofit may self-identify a potential practice as an effective way to meet client or organizational needs, or your organization may observe an activity or method in practice that you believe will help to close the gap in a need area.
Large nonprofit organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters or Boys and Girls Clubs have hundreds of thousands of program sites throughout the country to draw from and can more easily identify effective practices that meet common needs and are easily transferable from one site to another. However, smaller nonprofit organizations, due to their size, will likely have to turn to peer organizations to identify and observe "what works" in meeting specific need areas.