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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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The Hub Specialization Playbook

  • 3 Views

This playbook covers the ten success factors to consider in your specialisation strategy.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: GIZ Make-IT in Africa

Mentoring Assessment Tools

Receive personalised feedback and clear recommendations on your assessment, as a mentor, mentee or mentoring program managers

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management

Organization: The Human Edge

Make the Most of Mentoring

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

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

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

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

Tools & Strategies | Identifying & Qualifying Deeply Aligned Funders

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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: Governance
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Black Fox Global

Actionable Strategies for Engaging your Board

  • 3 Views
  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Black Fox Global

Grant Ready Communications

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

Organization: Black Fox Global

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Mentoring Entrepreneurs

Equip people with the skills, attributes, and behavious to be authentic and effective mentors.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Media Resources

Organization: The Human Edge

Incubation Replicaiton Guide

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The Incubation Replicaiton Guide is organized in four modules: Setting up an Incubator, Incubation Lifecycle, Operating an Incubator, Governance. These modules help you in all aspects of establishing your incubator, setting up effective processes, and having good governance of the organization.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Villgro

Scaling Toolkit

The Scaling Impact Toolkit is organised in accordance with the three stages of our unique and proved methodology – strategy, model, and implementation.
Helps you achieve a particular objective, whether it’s getting your scaling plans off the ground, becoming financially sustainable, identifying your ideal pathway to scale and the partners you need to support your model or other challenges you may be currently encountering.

  • Category: Scaling & Growth
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Spring Impact

Preliminary Assessment Scoring Worksheet

  • 3 Views
  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection
  • Type: Templates

Organization: Villgro

ESO Mapping Database

Mapping and streamlining of what incubators are offering to entrepreneurs at various stages, sectors, and geographies. Sharing information about hubs themselves and other related data, such as who has incubated whom helps us:
1. Understand if the entrepreneur is approaching you in need of additional support for the next stage of their business.
2. Understand if the entrepreneur is accessing another similar program within the same stage of their growth.
3. Identify potential partners with complimentary skills sets.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Research

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Best Practices for Alumni Engagement

A collaborative resource for ESOs to ensure continued engagement with alumni after the program. 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 engaging alumni after they have graduated from the program.

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

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Best Practices for Screening, Selection & Due Diligence

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 the process of screening, selection, and due diligence of entrepreneurs

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

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Guide to Impact Incubation & Acceleration

This is an interactive resource for entrepreneurial support
organisations (ESOs) who are running impact-focused
incubators or accelerators in the Asia-Pacific, and
beyond

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Frontier Incubators Program

Venture Development Framework (VDF)

To describe the development of early-stage science- and technology-based ventures.

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

Organization: Venturewell

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