Abstract—Non-profit organizations are identified as knowledge intensive. This qualification, coupled with a range of environmental forces exerted by both the public and for-profit sectors have irrevocably changed the landscape within which the not-for profit sector works, and its consequent functioning. Non-profit organizations, faced with an increasingly competitive environment, require adoption of a strategic approach to ensure sustainability, part of which requires strategic management of their knowledge assets. Debowski’s model of Knowledge Development is presented as a framework for examination of the level of conscious adoption of Knowledge Management strategies of the non-profit sector in Australia. Though competing with the for-profit sector, it will be argued that the uniqueness of non-profit organizations prevents them from directly adopting strategies used by the for-profit sector. Consequently, not only do strategies need to be tailored to suit the nuances of the non-profit sector, a number of external stakeholders, more specifically the public (Government) and for-profit sector, need to directly contribute to the development of non-profit sector’s capacity in this area. It is argued that these contributions are required, as both the public and for-profit sectors create significant barriers for such development, and that non-profit sector should be supported because of their significant economic and societal contributions. Keywords—Knowledge Management, Knowledge Development, Knowledge Strategy, Non-profit organizations. I. INTRODUCTION NOWLEDGE Management is an emergent discipline, steadily finding its place separate from, yet drawing upon disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, management and economics (Terra & Angeloni, 2003). Knowledge Management, as distinguished from Information Management, is defined as “the process by which an organization creates, acquires and uses knowledge to support and improve the performance of the organization” (Kinney, cited by Hurley & Green, 2005). While there is debate about its legitimacy as a separate discipline, there is no doubt that organizations that adopt Knowledge Management practices in a strategic manner are frequently identified as successful companies (Jashapara, 2004). Sharyn Renshaw is with School of Business and Informatics, Australian Catholic University. Girija Krishnaswamy is with School of Business and Informatics, Australian Catholic University (phone: 61 2 97392376, fax: 61 2 97392315, e- mail girija.krishnaswamy@acu.edu.au). Although Knowledge Management is an emergent field, and as such it continues to hold promise of development through further research (Debowski, 2006), research to date has been limited to its application to the commercial sector. Only minimal examination of the application of this field to the non-profit sector has been undertaken (Hume & Hume, 2007). One may postulate that this has been due to the emergent nature of the field, though, as will be supported through this paper, the non-profit sector is comprised of services that are knowledge-intensive (Lettieri, Borga & Savoldelli, 2004). This leads one to question why such an emergent field has not yet found roots in a sector, which is so knowledge reliant. In this paper the following questions will be examined: • Can the non-profit sector benefit from Knowledge Management? • Is the non-profit sector consciously adopting Knowledge Management strategies? • What limits the non-profit sector from maximising benefit from Knowledge Management strategies? • What is required for the non-profit sector to maximise Knowledge Management? We build a case to support research in this area, based on the societal contributions the non-profit sector makes. Debowski’s (2006) five phase model of Knowledge Development will form the framework to evaluate Knowledge Management strategies used by the non-profit sector. This will underpin the methodology used to explore the research questions. Existing literature, secondary data and relevant documents within the public domain will be examined in relation to each phase of this evaluative framework. The objective of this study is to establish a case for the need to manage knowledge within the non-profit sector, not only to facilitate this sector’s ongoing societal contributions, but also to assist ongoing economic contribution to Australia’s global economic viability and Knowledge Management strategy. It is anticipated that the examination will reveal that the Knowledge Management strategies adopted within the non- profit sector would vary from those utilised in the for-profit commercial/business arena. Conventional strategies would require tailoring to the non-profit sector and a number of Critiquing the Knowledge Management Strategies of Non-profit Organizations in Australia Sharyn Renshaw, and Girija Krishnaswamy K World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 49 2009 456