Abstract Managing change that aims to transform non-profit organisations into profit making institutions is a paradigm shift that managers find to be a challenging and daunting task. The study was conducted establish the strategies and best practises necessary to achieve the transformation goal in an environment of increasing competition for funds from the same donors. The study used a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches based on the Biomatrix theory and change management models to explain the best strategies to manage change based on the models that satisfy the change management framework. A systematic review of literature on change management strategies, organisational transformation methods, transformation ethos, the role of leadership styles, change management for competitive advantage, and change models for paradigm shift were investigated to establish the best approach for non-profit organisations to adopt. It was established that leadership played the key roles because culture change, behavior modification strategies, and methods to address resistance to change, team development strategies were critical for the change process and organisational development when converting non-profit organisations to profit making organisations for financial sustainability. It was noted that the current trend is that non-profit organisations are reducing their dependence on donor funds, merging to reduce running costs. The future trend, however, is for the non-profit organisations to merge to avoid the issue such as the duplication of services, and for those that do not merge, need to transform into profit making institutions for financial sustainability. Introduction Differentiated strategies have been researched on and proposed by various researchers in academia on how non-profit organisations can broadly manage change within their operations to increase the monetary resources for sustainable operations and development. Non-profit organisations depend on “voluntary, public and corporate funding through donations and bequests to render their services” (Todnem, 2005, p. 377). Typically the “member-serving organisations include mutual societies, cooperatives, trade unions, credit unions, industry associations, sports clubs, retired serviceman’s clubs and peak bodies – organisations that benefit a particular group of people – the members of the organisation” (Todnem, 2005, p. 377). McDermott and O’dell (2001) argue that revenue that is generated as profits by a non-profit organisation is restricted and does not benefit the members. Here, significant problems arise when non-profit organisations that depend on voluntary contributions or membership contributions become limited in monetary abilities that are reflected in the balance sheets that read red because the funds are insufficient to manage the operations of the organisations. The problem of financing non-profit institutions has been heightened by an increase in the number of non-profit organisations competing for funds from the same traditional donors and sources such as the government to finance their operations. However, because the donors are under increasing pressure to fund more organisations, the