Knowledge Management and the Non-Profit Sector

Abstract

We begin our discussion with the predictable qualification about definition and scope. The non-profit sector (also called, variously, the citizen sector, social sector, et al) is an exploding phenomenon in its own right, with 1.5 million now accounting for more than $1 trillion in revenues in the U.S.; during the past 15 years nonprofits grew faster than the overall economy, with thirty thousand new organizations created each year. Worldwide growth is also increasing, with global expenditures on this sector accounting for nearly 5 percent of combined global gross domestic product (Crutchfield & McLeod Grant, 2008, pp. 2-3). The range of kinds of organizations is dizzying, from rich foundations to just-scraping-by neighborhood associations to educational institutions, to environmental boutiques to global health and human services providers to professional associations to job training to youth leadership to…the list goes on and on. Needless to say, generalization about millions of different organizations in this sector have to be accepted for what they can only be—broad thematic indicators of representative concepts and practices.