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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

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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

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  • 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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ynos

YNOS is India’s largest information and analytics platform for early-stage startups and investors. The platform uses advanced data integration tools, analytical search methods, and powerful filters to screen and search startups, investors, and incubators across hundreds of industries and sectors.

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection

Organization: IIT Madras

Gender Lens Incubation and Acceleration Toolkit

(GLIA) toolkit is an interactive resource, to guide accelerators and incubators (or ‘intermediaries’) through the journey of uncovering how our activities impact, and are experienced by, different gendered groups.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Sasakawa Peace Foundation, ygap, Conveners.org and SecondMuse

Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs – A Handbook for Practitioners

This handbook is an interactive resource for you, whether you want to attract
more women entrepreneurs and/or better support them, want to improve the programme
or learn from the challenges and successes of others, select the right partners to run a programme, new to entrepreneurship support programmes &
women’s empowerment

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: GIZ

ESO Collaborative

This platform is a community resource developed by the ESO Collaborative which brings together government, the Ghana Hubs Network, and other enterprise support organisations. It provides entrepreneurs, startups, businesses, freelancers etc. with extensive details of programmes provided by Enterprise Support Organisations (ESOs) in Ghana.

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection
  • Type: Research

Organization: Impact Investing Ghana

Academy

The AfriLabs Academy is an initiative of AfriLabs and implemented under the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme that is designed to equip African Hub managers and staff with the training and management skills needed to improve their ability and capacity to support the growing number of startups and MSMEs in their communities

  • Category: Talent
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Afrilabs

NEX Portfolio

Please find our detailed database of some of our portfolio businesses here. Our aim is to provide more connections and global network opportunities to businesses that have participated in NEX programming as well as offer market expansion opportunities.

Listing of companies, many of which are seeking out collaborators, we’ve supported in 12 countries. This database is still being enriched and more data to be added by end of March.

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

Organization: New Energy Nexus

Satsense App

This tool uses satellite earth observation for transparent digital monitoring reporting and verification of Natural Capital projects. It can evaluate the positive impacts of land management practices to help generate carbon, biodiversity and other green credits.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Technology Platforms / Software

Organization: Satsense Solutions

Due Diligence Check list

Checklist of documents to put in your Data Room for a DD process

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection
  • Type: Templates

Organization: Impact Hub Abidjan

Creative Metier 4V Model Diagnostic Tool

The Creative Metier 4V Model offers socially committed impact networks, and their funders, the opportunity to significantly accelerate their impact by drawing on our work with national, regional and global networks.

It provides a diagnostic, a 360 view and a fresh perspective to strengthen network performance and impact.

The 4V Model Diagnostic Tool benchmarks your network now, informs strategic planning, sets annual priorities, reviews and refocuses, and stretches thinking about what might be possible.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Templates

Organization: Creative Metier

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