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. 

Tool Category
Resource Type

Search

Scaling and Replication: A way to grow your impact

In this toolkit, you will find useful concepts and indications that can help you navigate
the replicability and scalability worlds. On the one hand, we’ve realized there is a need
for social entrepreneur support organizations (SESOs) to acquire techniques and tools to
integrate in their offer of technical services specific tools and methodologies to support
the social entrepreneurs (SEs) that are ready and mature enough, in their growth path.
On the other hand, this tool wants to be of support for the SEs that are interested in
understanding the different essential steps that need to be undertaken, to assess their
readiness to start a replicating or scaling strategy and to choose the best option to
achieve one of two growth options.

Organization: Impact Hub & MedUp!

Toward Inclusive Access: Navigating Gender and Disability Barriers in Entrepreneurship Support and Financing

This publication focuses on women entrepreneurs with disabilities’ access to business
support and financial resources. The objective is to increase economic opportunity for all
and foster inclusive growth. This report may be particularly useful for business development
organisations and financial service providers and investors, as well as policymakers seeking
to understand the interplay between gender, disability, and entrepreneurship.

Organization: UN ESCAP & Impact Hub

Incubator Toolkit

Launching an incubation program for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) requires a strategic approach to nurture and accelerate their growth. The incubator Toolkit is designed to guide incubators in developing comprehensive programs tailored to the unique needs of these MSMEs. From initial assessment to post-incubation support, this toolkit equips you with methodologies and best practices, to foster innovation and improve their business capabilities. This toolkit empowers incubators to not only guide MSMEs towards success but also to adapt and evolve with the ever-changing business landscape, ensuring long-lasting impact & resilience.

Organization: Instellar, Koalisi Ekonomi Membumi & SEED Indonesia

Smarter Systems Accelerator Implementation Guide

This implementation guide outlines three steps we found that accelerators
can incorporate into their selection processes to consistently evaluate all startups more
accurately.

Organization: IFC / Vilcap / WeFi

Lessons from accelerators supporting women-led startups in emerging markets

This publication contains case studies, strategies, and practical advice from five accelerators and entrepreneur support organizations awarded by ScaleX for their successful efforts to help women-led startups in emerging markets overcome barriers and secure capital post-acceleration.

Organization: IFC

Enabling inclusive and empowering workplaces for migrant women through entrepreneurial support. A guide for Business Support Organisations

This toolkit is about equipping BSOs with principles, tools, activities and
methods that they can use with the entrepreneurs and ventures they support,
so that enterprises can make their workplaces more inclusive and empowering
for migrant women.

Organization: Impact Hub

Embedding Circularity

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.

Organization: Impact Hub

The Circularity Toolkit

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.

Organization: Impact Hub

Incubation Tools and Templates

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

Organization: Villgro Philippines & USAID

Tool Category

Resource Type

Search

Mentoring Entrepreneurs

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

Organization: The Human Edge

Incubation Replicaiton Guide

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.

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.

Organization: Spring Impact

Preliminary Assessment Scoring Worksheet

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.

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.

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

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

Organization: Frontier Incubators Program

Venture Development Framework (VDF)

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

Organization: Venturewell

Submit a tool

[tool_custom_submit]

Get in Touch!

Our Network is a community of stakeholders in the impact incubation ecosystem within the Global South.  We work together to scale change, so get in touch and don’t be a stranger.

Media Inquiries

We can't wait to chat!