Conducting online surveys offers many benefits to program evaluators in a wide range of disciplines. However, the method is not widespread or proven to reach highly diverse populations in areas without a reliable Internet connection. K4Health, a global knowledge management project, has overcome these limitations by instituting numerous quality control mechanisms in the design and implementation of online surveys to systematically assess information needs of healthcare professionals working in resource poor settings. K4Health’s global online needs assessment was conducted in three languages (English, French, and Spanish) over a one-month period in spring 2009, and collected 925 responses from various professionals in 110 predominantly low- and medium-income countries. Survey results were triangulated with findings from other components of a broader needs assessment, and effectively informed the design of a global knowledge management project aiming to bring credible, relevant and usable information to key audiences including community health workers in isolated locations.