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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. 

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CIRCULAR BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN GUIDE

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

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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

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

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

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

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

Mentor Feedback Template

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Use this form to gather quick feedback from your mentors, as they meet with the entrepreneurs after each session.

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

Organization: UK-South Africa Tech Hub

Mentor Application Form

The hub can use this template to collect details of potential mentors.

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

Organization: UK-South Africa Tech Hub

Incubator – Mentor SLA Document

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Outline of an agreement / SLA document between incubator hub and the mentor

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

Organization: UK-South Africa Tech Hub

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Business Incubator Managers Incubation Management Training

The Business Incubation Management Training Program was created for business incubator managers and stakeholders in developing countries and emerging markets. Through its network of certified facilitators, infoDev has helped more than one thousand people increase their understanding of business incubator models, how to finance an incubator, monitoring and evaluation, mentoring programs, and more. The training program was designed for face-to-face delivery with each module requiring one day of classroom learning.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: infoDev, World Bank & IFC

Incubator Collaborative Learnings Document

A compilation of the challenges and struggles of incubators and accelerators in the Global South as well as proposed solutions sourced from the dozens of online meetings, and in-person workshops hosted by Pollinate Impact. Spoiler Alert – Irrespective of the geographich location or the type of entrepreneur supported, the challenges and the solutions largely remain consistent across the field.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Landscape Analysis of the Uganda Innovation Ecosystem

The report provides an overview of the research on the Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs) in Uganda, how they are set up, what they offer, to whom, and how. It particularly looks at the state and opportunity of collaboration among stakeholders in the ecosystem, especially among the ESOs, but also with the public sector. It gives a list of 16 recommendations to bring the Ugandan entrepreneurship ecosystem forward and ensure that entrepreneurs get better support faster.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Research

Organization: Response Innovation Lab & Start Up Uganda

Lean Research: Human Centered Approach to Reserach

Lean Research is an approach and an initiative to improve the practice of data collection involving people and communities in development and humanitarian contexts.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: D-Lab

Lean Data Approaches to Measure Social Impact

In this course, learn the Lean Data methodology, a new way to collect insights from customers in order to measure your outcomes and make decisions that maximize impact.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Acumen

Embedding Circularity in Entrepreneurial Support: Learning from Pilot Programs

The document enlists the best practices and recommendations for incubators and accelerators to support circularity entrepreneurs. Impact Hub launched the “Circularity by Design” program in 2021 with the hypothesis that just like profitability is a design principle for most businesses, circularity can also become a design principle for enterprises. Impact Hub developed the “Embedding Circularity” toolkit for incubators and accelerators, provided capacity building to business support organizations, and validated the tools with entrepreneurs and businesses through pilot incubation and acceleration programs with 12 Impact Hubs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Impact Hub

Tools for Designing Inclusive Entrepreneurship Support Programmes

The Toolkit is organised in line with the common
steps of designing and running a business support
programme. You can easily navigate these different
steps below and jump directly to where you are at,
or you can read from beginning to end to get a better
grasp of the many facets and perspectives when it
comes to inclusion and accessibility in incubation and
business support. For each step, different tools are
listed and you can pick out what best fits your reality.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Impact Hub

Collection of Best Practices in Inclusive Entrepreneurship Support Programmes

The document aims to provide actionable insights for incubators & accelerators, NGOs, policymakers, funders, and other stakeholders to be applied in the design and implementation of inclusive incubation and support programs, strategies, and/or policies.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Impact Hub

Toolkit for Inclusive and Relevant Business Support for Indigenous Entrepreneurs

This guide is for Indigenous support organizations who walk alongside Indigenous entrepreneurs, helping them grow ideas into realities that honor their cultural, social, and economic aspirations. It’s a starting point for aligning business support with the deep-rooted values and needs of Indigenous communities.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Impact Hub

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