We’ve all had this experience. We’re out to eat with family or friends and a question comes up. Either no one knows the answer or there’s a debate over which answer is correct. In a matter of seconds a cell phone is pulled out and in a matter of a couple more seconds the dilemma is put to rest. Answer found.

One example of knowledge organization is Wikipedia the granddaddy of crowd sourcing. Wikipedia is created and monitored by millions of people, there is no expert, just a team of authors, a million fold. People are learning from each other. Correcting each other’s mistakes. And finding the adjacent possibles.

When it comes to social services, when it comes to changing the world, our community really doesn’t have a Wikipedia version yet. This bothers us. And so we’re starting the shift. RU is setting out to create tools to help spread information. If an organization has cornered the market on knowing the best practices of fundraising, we need that organization to be sharing their knowledge with the rest of the community.

But wait, what about competition? You might be thinking, “Why in the world would one organization want to teach another organization how to fundraise better? That’s just increasing competition!”

As charitable or social service organizations our goal is bettering our community. There is no room for competition. I agree, sometimes organizations feel vulnerable, as if there are limited resources, limited charitable funds, limited volunteers. But it’s not limited. We need to engage each other, help our fellow organizations become better; more efficient, more effective, and more sustainable.

The only limit on resources is when a community is not vibrant, not engaged. The more organizations that are engaging our community, the more opportunities and resources are available. The more people who are served and assisted through viable and effective organizational work and mission, the more citizens are available to engage in community life and missions. So the competition argument falls flat.

If every organization in a community is sharing their knowledge and resources they will receive much more than what they put in. We’re not talking about oil, or money or copper. Knowledge is easy to share and it’s unlimited. Sharing knowledge is cyclical; what comes around goes around. The more we share knowledge the smarter we become collectively.