The National Venture Capital Association on Wednesday unveiled a set of recommendations aimed at helping the venture capital industry through tough financial times.

The proposals, released in Boston at the NVCA's annual meeting, were addressed to the venture capital industry, investment banking, accounting professions, law firms, stock exchanges, and the government. The NVCA hopes these institutions will enact measures to restore a vibrant IPO market once the overall economy stabilizes.

“The recommendations we are making need a return to stability in the public markets to be effective," said Dixon Doll, NVCA chairman and general partner at DCM. "We are not going to solve the financial meltdown.”

The NVCA’s move comes after only six companies went public in 2008.

Mr. Doll asked that “both the private sector and the government address the breakdowns that have occurred within their respective systems,” to solve “a situation that has become untenable for both venture-backed companies and the U.S. economy.”

The NVCA said that venture-backed public companies are critical to U.S. economic growth. Citing a report to be released in May by Global Insight, it estimates that in 2008, public companies that were once venture backed accounted for more than 12 million U.S. jobs and $2.9 trillion in revenues, or 21 percent of U.S. GDP.

Global Insight estimates that 92 percent of job growth at these companies occurs once the company enters the public markets.

The NVCA's first recommendation asks for greater collaboration within the U.S. financial system.

That would call on major U.S. banking firms to join hands with boutique firms as joint bookrunners in IPOs, boosting the business of the smaller, more specialized financial firms, among other improvements.

The NVCA's second recommendation calls on the industry to improve the way stock is sold and distributed in IPOs. For example, the NVCA endorses the private market platform Inside Venture, which connects qualified companies that intend to go public within 18 months with pre-screened investors. Such investors would have to buy and hold stocks longer term instead of quickly flip.

The third recommended asks Washington to continue to keep taxes for firms at capital gains rate rather than increasing them.

The NVCA’s last recommendation took issue with regulatory measures of the last decade such as Sarbanes Oxley that aimed at curbing abuses within the financial system yet resulted in creating higher hurdles for smaller pre-IPO companies.

“Small venture backed companies have been faced with costly compliance and increasing obstacles to enter the public markets as a result of regulations intended for larger multi-national corporations,” the report said.

The NVCA called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review such regulations that have adversely effected small-cap companies.

DCM is an investor in Red Herring.