As part of its commitment to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (UN PRME), the Kemmy Business School’s Centre for Project Management would like to invite papers, practitioner case studies and discussions that advance the understanding and practice of project and programme management in the non-profit sector.

The first International Conference on Managing Projects in the Non-Profit Sector will be held on 20th / 21st October 2014 at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland. The conference theme is Delivering Social Good, and it will bring together academic and practitioner perspectives to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by the non-profit sector. Areas covered will include but are not limited to international aid, disaster preparedness and recovery, development, poverty reduction, healthcare, education, environmental protection, human rights, community development, arts and culture. In each of these areas, non-profit organisations ranging from international non-governmental organisations, to nationally-focused advocacy and special interest groups, to community based organisations, are playing an increasingly important role in addressing societal needs, delivering services, and advocating or campaigning for change all around the world.

The conference will explore diverse stakeholder perspectives and share examples of project management practices in the sector, thereby enabling participants to learn from others’ experiences. Key objectives of the conference are to develop and expand the network of project management practitioners working in the sector, to explore how cross-sectoral collaborations can help non-profit organisations achieve their objectives, and to develop opportunities for future collaboration between practitioners and academics.

We are now inviting proposals for papers, practitioner case studies, poster presentations and panel sessions. Submissions are particularly welcome in the following thematic areas:

• Challenges and successes in international project and programme management;
• Case studies of innovative approaches to project management at local, national and international level;
• Adapting methodologies such as PRINCE2, PMBOK, APM, IPMA, etc. for use in the non-profit sector;
• New methodological approaches for delivering projects;
• Stakeholder engagement;
• Governance and risk;
• Realising benefits and assessing project impacts;
• Defining and promoting sustainability in project and programme management;
• Project management issues for corporate/non-profit collaborations;
• Leveraging corporate, governmental and inter-governmental expertise in the non-profit sector;
• Capacity building;
• Critical perspectives on the application of corporate approaches to non-profit environments;
• The management of equality and diversity issues in NGO projects and programmes;
• Knowledge transfer and retention in project environments;
• Leveraging local knowledge in projects.

Submissions can be sent to PMnonprofit@ul.ie. They must not be published or under review for another conference or journal. A selection of papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of an internationally recognised journal.