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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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Make the Most of Mentoring

  • 11 Views

Whether you’re actively seeking a new mentor or simply curious about the benefits of mentoring, our “Make the Most of Mentoring” course will equip you with the tools and strategies needed to succeed.

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

Organization: The Human Edge

Tips for Sourcing a Diverse Accelerator

  • 14 Views

Vilcap and IBM share the intentionally inclusive process of reaching founders outside their traditional networks, and using an inclusive and equitable diligence process in their cohorts. Here’s what we did differently – and what any decision-maker in tech: any investor, accelerator leader or corporation, can do to reduce implicit bias when they’re working with early-stage entrepreneurs.

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Vilcap & IBM

Creating an Impact Investment Ask

  • 12 Views

Diagnose a venture’s business growth readiness using a structured seven-element framework

Build a four-step impact management process aligned with investor expectations

Integrate business and impact insights to craft a compelling and credible investment ask

Communicate investment needs in a way that aligns with both financial and impact goals

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

Organization: CASE

Impact Investment Finance

  • 21 Views

What are impact investors looking for? This course offers a practical introduction to the impact investing marketplace. You’ll learn how the market is structured, including the roles of asset owners and asset managers, and how capital flows between them. The course explores how impact investors pursue both financial and social or environmental returns, and the different types of investors involved along with their motivations, constraints, and preferred investment vehicles.

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

Organization: CASE

Identifying & Qualifying Deeply Aligned Funders – Tools & Strategies

  • 15 Views

Explore tips on how to shape funder research priorities and criteria to assess funder fit and uncover the information your organization needs to support this step in the fundraising process.

  • Category: Donor & Investor Relations
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Black Fox Global

Actionable Strategies for Engaging your Board

  • 12 Views

When boards are equipped with clarity, confidence, and joy in their roles, fundraising stops being a burden and starts becoming a team sport. The session walks through the core modules leaders can use to design and run their own fundraising retreat.

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Black Fox Global

Grant Ready Communications

  • 18 Views

Tried and true strategies to ensure your organization is ‘grant ready’ when you do secure invitations to submit proposals and letters of inquiry (LOIs).

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Handbooks, Playbooks, & Guides

Organization: Black Fox Global

Building a Fundraising Board: Recruiting and On-Boarding New Board Members

  • 12 Views

How do you then save your nonprofit and board from this quagmire? By creating a culture of success by recruiting members who can be effective, then giving them the tools to be successful.

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Handbooks, Playbooks, & Guides

Organization: Black Fox Global

Building Authentic Funder Relationships and Maximizing Opportunities for Funding

  • 32 Views

Explores ways to build authentic funder relationships through professional persistence.

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Black Fox Global

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Babele

  • 13 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

  • 14 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, Playbooks, & Guides

Organization: SEAD @ DUKE & CASE

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

  • 33 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

  • 9 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

Social Investment Toolkit

  • 10 Views

In 8 modules, the toolkit guides entrepreneurs on each step of the way, from how to define your social mission to creating a compelling investor pitch. It also shows entrepreneurs how social investors think and what they are looking for. There is also a social investment readiness test to help entrepreneurs work out which areas to focus on.

  • Category: Financial Sustainability
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Social Investment Toolkit

Financial Sustainability of Startup Incubators

  • 14 Views

The primary objective of this report is to
outline various revenue streams (not to be conflated with funding sources) accessible to
startup incubators and recommend a revenue mix which ensures that the incubator remains
focused on its core activities related to provision of entrepreneurial support to its incubatee
startups.

  • Category: Financial Sustainability
  • Type: Research, Reports, Data & Insights

Organization: Atal Innovation Mission & Niti Aayog

Best Practices for Designing Inclusive Programs & Support

  • 15 Views

This resource is a collection of both the key challenges and the best practices that have been effective in addressing the common challenges faced by ESOs globally in designing inclusive programs to support the diverse entrepreneurs in the ecosystem.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Business Incubator Managers Incubation Management Training

  • 14 Views

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, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: infoDev, World Bank & IFC

Incubator Collaborative Learnings Document

  • 10 Views

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, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Pollinate Impact

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