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Incubator Tool Library

A collection of vetted tools and resources to help impact incubators run smarter, scale bigger, and better support their entrepreneurs.

Pollinate Impact Tool Library

Welcome to your shortcut to the good stuff.

When we say “tool”, we mean anything that helps incubators thrive—software, templates, handbooks, or any resource that lets you level up your game. We’ve curated the best for impact incubators across the Global South, so skip the search, grab what you need, and get back to making magic happen. 

Share your tool! If you have a tool, template, or resource that others could benefit from, submit it for review. 

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A Practitioner’s Guide to Effective Blended Finance Solutions for Social Enterprises

  • 19 Views

Blended finance solutions offer the potential to combine development capital with a variety of financial instruments such as impact bonds, concessional capital, and risk mitigation structures. We consistently see that deployment of these instruments is limited because of the inherent complexity and cost. But more so, due to a lack of awareness and standardization among capital providers. Without addressing these core issues, enterprises are deemed too risky, and the potential for social and financial returns may not be realized. Through this report, we aim to raise awareness about the importance of enabling funding for social enterprises – understanding their unique characteristics and challenges in capital raising – and articulate the key issues involved in applying blended finance to SMEs. We hope to simplify current bespoke solutions to build replicable and scalable financing solutions. We propose solutions that include building capacity of enterprises, embedding sustainability into the design of instruments, simplifying impact management, and creating open databases on blended finance transactions.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Research

Organization: Villgro

INCUBATION FUND MANAGEMENT: Investment Playbook for Startup Incubators

  • 19 Views

This playbook offers suggestive guidelines for early-stage incubators that have recently begun receiving seed grants from governments and other sources. While broadly relevant to all incubators managing an Incubation Fund, this guide would be most useful for incubators and incubation managers with limited prior experience in fund deployment and management.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: MeitY Startup Hub

The Circular Venture Blueprint: A Guide for ESOs

  • 10 Views

Supporting circular economy ventures calls for approaches that differ from traditional entrepreneurship support. These ventures often follow distinct growth paths, need specialised market connections, and create value in ways that mainstream metrics don’t capture.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Circular Economy Innovation Cluster

CIRCULAR BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN GUIDE

  • 5 Views

A practical guide to help business
leaders identify circular opportunities
and design business models that create,
deliver and capture value

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Ellen Mc Arthur Foundation

GEDSI Toolkit – Guide and Overview

  • 5 Views

A practical toolkit to get started or deepen your practice and understanding of Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion within your Transforming Energy Access (TEA) project.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Value For Women

A Strategic Mess – Developing an Impact Strategy

  • 12 Views

When it comes to developing strategy, it’s easy for a social venture’s leadership team to revert back to the same old strategic planning process they’ve used in the past: Inertia is real and repeating the same process, even if you know it’s not the best, is comfortable and easy.

  • Category: Scaling & Growth
  • Type: Media Resources

Organization: SSIR

Board Risk Resilience Checklist

  • 8 Views

Effective governance means more than compliance. It requires awareness, foresight, and the courage to lead with purpose in times of uncertainty. This checklist is designed to help nonprofit boards and executives assess whether their organization is prepared to respond to today’s shifting legal, political, financial, and reputational risks.

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Templates

Organization: BoardSource.org

Application Form Template

  • 7 Views

This is a sample of a program application form for a incubator. It also includes clear description of the program, what is included in the program, and timelines.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Templates

Organization: Innovate UK

Incubation Monthly Update and Review Template

  • 6 Views

Use this template to gather monthly updates on all programs within the incubator and review progress, challenges, to help identify corrections and pivots

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Templates

Organization: Villgro

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Setting up Startup Incubator In India [Metrics & Milestones for Successful Incubator Development]

  • 5 Views

A whitepaper for the Department of Science & Technology (DST) to institute standards for the establishment and working of incubators in India, titled “Guidelines – Metrics & Milestones for Successful Incubator Development.”

The whitepaper aims at setting some of the much needed guidelines for incubation of startups in India and includes recommendations to set the motion for analysis, discussion & debate for policy review and modifications, for the benefit of both funding and host organizations that set up incubators.

Though developed for the government of India, this White Paper provides useful insights which incubators in the African context can take with them. Sections 2 and 3 are particularly useful. Their practical insights provide adaptable frameworks for incubators. It explains how to measure the success of the incubator, deal with commonly faced challenges, and conceptualise long-term impact.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Research

Organization: Wadhwani Foundation NEN

Handbook for Non-Profit Incubator Managers

  • 5 Views

This handbook provides a deep explanation on how to set up and run an incubator. It provides examples, step-by-step guides, and frameworks. The annexures in particular provide useful templates for determining elements of a successful and effective incubator.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Launch League. Published by GIZ & Authored by CIIE

Greentech

  • 3 Views

These resources cover key concepts in the green economy, and give insight into how to support green businesses and skills development.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Launch Leage

Launch League Cybersecurity and Data Protection

  • 4 Views

The Cybersecurity and Data Protection toolkit, developed by the British High Commission Pretoria and the South African Department for Communications Digital Technology, contains free open licence tools, templates and guides that equip small businesses with the foundational training materials and resources they need to increase their cybersecurity resilience and become compliant with the POPI Act.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Launch Leage

Launch League Let’s Talk Financing

  • 4 Views

The Launch League Let’s Talk Financing toolkit, developed by the UK-South Africa Tech Hub and Viridian, is a set of open licence resources for hubs to use in running a workshop or guiding a conversation with entrepreneurs through a step-by-step process.

By completing their Financing Card, entrepreneurs will understand their business’ stage, revenue model, assets and risk appetite, and growth plans — and therefore determine what financing options are available to them.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Launch Leage

Launch League Idea-stage Programme

  • 4 Views

The Launch League Idea-stage Programme toolkit, developed by the UK-South Africa Tech Hub and Viridian, consists of all the open licence resources you need to run an idea-stage programme for the entrepreneurs in your community. The programme is designed to help entrepreneurs understand the different parts of their business and how these hang together as a viable business model.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Launch Leage

5 Questions to Help Your Team Make Better Decisions

  • 3 Views

Five questions to help sharpen your decision-making process, whether in personal matters or business strategy.

  • Category: Talent
  • Type: Media Resources

Organization: Steven Morris

A Playbook for Employee Ownership in Sub Saharan Africa

  • 5 Views

It provides a roadmap to
pursue EO across seven countries and offers an
analytical approach that could be replicated in other
regions where EO remains nascent.3

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Pre Distribution Initiative

Unlocking New Capital for Social Enterprises and Nonprofits

  • 3 Views

Funding models for SEs and non-profits

  • Category: Financial Sustainability
  • Type: Research

Organization: Eliana Summer-Galai

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