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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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Embedding Circularity

  • 3 Views

A practical learning journey for incubators and accelerators to integrate circular design principles into their entrepreneur support services. This online curriculum will help you identify ways to enable a more circular and sustainable economy by supporting startup and growth stage ventures to apply circular design principles early on.
You will also be generating a pipeline of innovation for key industries and value chains that need to become more circular to build for a just and sustainable society.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Impact Hub

The Circularity Toolkit

  • 6 Views

This toolkit offers insights, tools and methodologies for Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) to take a Circular Economy lens to their entrepreneur support programs, particularly incubators and accelerators, in order to mainstream circular design principles across small and growing businesses regardless of whether they are social, environmental or profit-driven.

You can use this toolkit to develop a program explicitly focused on supporting ventures with Circular Economy solutions, or to embed circular design principles into other programs that aren’t explicitly focused on the Circular Economy.

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

Organization: Impact Hub

Incubation Tools and Templates

  • 3 Views

A collection of tools and templates that guide you in the process and activities of incubation as laid out in the Innovation Playbook by Villgro Philippines

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

Organization: Villgro Philippines & USAID

The Innovation Playbook

  • 4 Views

The primary purpose of this Innovation Playbook is to provide a structured yet
comprehensive guide for stakeholders involved in the creation, management, and growth of
incubation and acceleration programs. The Playbook can serve as a guide to those looking to
support innovations, specifically in the health sector, with a lens of affordability and
accessibility. This playbook has been designed to simplify the processes associated with
establishing and operating successful incubation initiatives, ensuring consistency, efficiency,
and effectiveness across programs and mitigate challenges for new operators.

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

Organization: Villgro Philippines & USAID

Empowering FP/RH innovations for scale – Summary

  • 6 Views

Empowering FP/RH Innovations for Scale is a set of resources to provide an approach to stakeholders to better assess and support the scale-up of FP/RH innovations and accelerate progress towards FP/RH goals. Along with a summary, this includes a scale-up guide, toolkits and templates, and scale-up lessons and case studies. These resources are not exhaustive and build off and reference other tools and resources.
Resources include –
1. Summary and user’s guide
2. Scale-up guide
3. Toolkit & Templates
4. Scale-up lessons and case studies

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

Organization: USAID & MOMENTUM Innovation Accelerator

Pre-Seed + Seed Investor Database

  • 5 Views

A database of 1,600+ early stage lead investors curated by Michael Houck, a founder whose built startups that have raised from a16z and others that have bootstrapped to seven-figures of revenue.

  • Category: Donor & Investor Relations
  • Type: Research

Organization: Founding Journey

Business Coaching Playbook

  • 5 Views

This guide will assist you on your journey as a mentor, and gives you all the guidance you need to perform your duties as a mentor. It looks at proactive mentorship, the mentorship process and provides tips on how to be a good mentor. The guide also outlines the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Framework to coaching. The guide concludes by sharing other mentors’ approaches to mentorship and key lessons that they have learned on their mentorship journey.

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

Organization: Allan Gray Orbis Foundation

The measurement of success in a business incubation projec

  • 3 Views

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact and success of a business incubationproject on its participants. The study aims to consider the impact of the project in terms of developingand supporting entrepreneurial activity within Wales. It seeks to build on and enhance existingbusiness incubation literature and contribute to the field by identifying “good” practice and considersthe measurement of success within such projects

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

Organization: University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, UK

ANALYSIS OF THE RIO DE JANEIRO STATE INCUBATOR NETWORK (ReINC): CHARACTERISTICS AND INFLUENCE ON THE ORGANIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF INCUBATORS

  • 2 Views

The emergence of incubators in Brazil occurred from the bottom-up in the context of the down-fall of the military government and the restoration of civil society in the 1980s. To develop its activities the incubators in 1987 organized a civil association called ANPROTEC. This national association encouraged the setting up of regional/state incubator networks, to bring together local incubators, exchange experience and seek support at the regional level. This paper presents the initial results of a study that is in course, the aim of which is to assess how the regional incubator network in the state of Rio de Janeiro, known as ReINC, has contributed to sustainability, based on theoretical concepts of social networks and social capital.

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

Organization: Rio de Janeiro State University

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Developing a Theory of Change: Practical Guidance

  • 2 Views

Overview of TOC concepts, and language, concrete steps and provides exercises, examples and resources to help groups aiming to develop and use a theory of change.
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  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: The ANNE E Casey Foundation

Scaling Pathways

  • 4 Views

Aims to equip enterprises to more effectively navigate the journey to scale by capturing tactical insights and hard-won lessons from social enterprises.

  • Category: Scaling & Growth
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: DUKE

CASE Scale Readiness Diagnostic

  • 6 Views

The Scale Readiness Diagnostic helps your impact organization assess relative areas of strength and priorities for improvement as you navigate your scale journey.

  • Category: Scaling & Growth
  • Type: Templates

Organization: DUKE

Impact Measurement & Management for the SDGs

  • 4 Views

The course was designed around the fundamental elements of the SDG Impact Standards, the only management standards that embed sustainability at the core of an organization in the holistic way intended by the creators of the SDGs. The course demonstrates how the SDG Impact Standards help organizations align with responsible business principles, other standards, and best practices in impact management.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: DUKE

Accubate

  • 5 Views

Accubate is a cloud-native enterprise-grade innovation management platform which offers an advanced suite of features every step of the way from ideation through to implementation.

  • Category: Scaling & Growth
  • Type: Technology Platforms / Software

Organization: Cunomial

Babele

  • 4 Views

Babele is the online platform to manage your mission-driven innovation ecosystems & effectively engage stakeholders

  • Category: Scaling & Growth
  • Type: Technology Platforms / Software

Organization: Babele

Angel Networks in Emerging Markets: A Guide for Development Institutions

  • 3 Views

Even as these ecosystem-building efforts generate progress, accessing sufficient
financial capital remains a critical challenge for entrepreneurs at this early, high-
risk stage. Increasing the flow of private capital into early stage enterprises to help
them bridge the pioneer gap is a key pillar of PACE’s work to drive broader economic
development in emerging markets. This guide was commissioned by PACE to identify
specific leverage points for USAID and other development institutions to support an
instrumental source of early-stage capital – local angel investor networks.

  • Category: Donor & Investor Relations
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: SEAD @ DUKE & CASE

Decoding the ABCs of Effective Enterprise Acceleration: 10 Lessons from SEAD

  • 4 Views

Like learning a new language, scaling an enterprise is full of unknowns, imperfect attempts and lessons for the future. Enterprise accelerators often serve as translators between their participants and the outside world. In doing so, accelerators must decipher between what they assume will be effective and what the enterprises they serve want and need. How can enterprise accelerators crack the code?

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: SEAD @ DUKE & CASE

ESO Mapping Fatigue In Kenya

  • 3 Views

Are we experiencing ‘Mapping Fatigue’ with the BIG question being what is the mapping end game?. Is it just a question of counting heads or is there a bigger play in terms of informing policy or identifying gaps?

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection
  • Type: Media Resources

Organization: Victor Otieno Agolla

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