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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 Incubation Toolkit for Africa

  • 23 Views

The Incubation Programme Toolkit for Africa is a free, practical guide designed specifically for hubs, incubators, and ecosystem builders across Africa. It helps them design, implement, and improve incubation initiatives that deliver measurable business outcomes and stronger support for early-stage startups.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: FATE Foundation

How to Measure the Gender Impact of Investments: Using the 2X Challenge Indicators in Alignment with IRIS+

  • 9 Views

A guidance resource for incubators, accelerators, and investors to measure and report gender impact using the 2X Challenge criteria, aligned with IRIS+ indicators.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: GIIN

Gender Toolkit

  • 5 Views

Gender Toolkit is a free, practical online resource designed to help investors, companies and other stakeholders integrate gender-smart approaches into their processes and decisions. It offers guidance, tools, templates and sector-specific insights to support gender-inclusive strategies and investments — with the ultimate aim of advancing women’s economic empowerment and gender equality

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

Organization: British International Investment

A framework to Drive Impact

  • 4 Views

This explains how your Theory of Change can be an effective framework to drive impact. The video also highlights three points to keep in mind when creating your theory of change.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Media Resources

Organization: DUKE

Igniting Innovation: A comprehensive handbook for incubators and accelerators

  • 2 Views

Standardized templates and guidelines can greatly assist these entities in establishing a
governance structure, defining eligibility criteria, developing application
processes, and creating agreements with startups in a consistent and
efficient manner. By adopting these resources, incubators can improve
operational efficiency, reduce the risk of non-compliance, and align their
operations with industry standards and best practices. Pg. 377 onwards

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC)

Lab to Market Commercialization Playbook

  • 5 Views

This resource covers the entire commercialization process in one place with highly practical tools, tips, and resources Include general and stage-specific guidance, and pertains to any university or research institution and any technology/sector, with a focus on energy & mobility

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

Organization: William Davidson Institute at University of Michigan

A Practitioner’s Guide to Effective Blended Finance Solutions for Social Enterprises

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

Organization: Villgro

INCUBATION FUND MANAGEMENT: Investment Playbook for Startup Incubators

  • 6 Views

This playbook offers suggestive guidelines for early-stage incubators that have recently begun receiving seed grants from governments and other sources. While broadly relevant to all incubators managing an Incubation Fund, this guide would be most useful for incubators and incubation managers with limited prior experience in fund deployment and management.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: MeitY Startup Hub

The Circular Venture Blueprint: A Guide for ESOs

  • 3 Views

Supporting circular economy ventures calls for approaches that differ from traditional entrepreneurship support. These ventures often follow distinct growth paths, need specialised market connections, and create value in ways that mainstream metrics don’t capture.

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Circular Economy Innovation Cluster

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Launch League Cybersecurity and Data Protection

The Cybersecurity and Data Protection toolkit, developed by the British High Commission Pretoria and the South African Department for Communications Digital Technology, contains free open licence tools, templates and guides that equip small businesses with the foundational training materials and resources they need to increase their cybersecurity resilience and become compliant with the POPI Act.

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

Organization: Launch Leage

Launch League Let’s Talk Financing

The Launch League Let’s Talk Financing toolkit, developed by the UK-South Africa Tech Hub and Viridian, is a set of open licence resources for hubs to use in running a workshop or guiding a conversation with entrepreneurs through a step-by-step process.

By completing their Financing Card, entrepreneurs will understand their business’ stage, revenue model, assets and risk appetite, and growth plans — and therefore determine what financing options are available to them.

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

Organization: Launch Leage

Launch League Idea-stage Programme

The Launch League Idea-stage Programme toolkit, developed by the UK-South Africa Tech Hub and Viridian, consists of all the open licence resources you need to run an idea-stage programme for the entrepreneurs in your community. The programme is designed to help entrepreneurs understand the different parts of their business and how these hang together as a viable business model.

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

Organization: Launch Leage

5 Questions to Help Your Team Make Better Decisions

Five questions to help sharpen your decision-making process, whether in personal matters or business strategy.

  • Category: Talent
  • Type: Media Resources

Organization: Steven Morris

A Playbook for Employee Ownership in Sub Saharan Africa

It provides a roadmap to
pursue EO across seven countries and offers an
analytical approach that could be replicated in other
regions where EO remains nascent.3

  • Category: Governance
  • Type: Handbooks

Organization: Pre Distribution Initiative

Unlocking New Capital for Social Enterprises and Nonprofits

Funding models for SEs and non-profits

  • Category: Financial Sustainability
  • Type: Research

Organization: Eliana Summer-Galai

Developing a Theory of Change: Practical Guidance

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.
Si

  • Category: Incubator Design
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: The ANNE E Casey Foundation

Scaling Pathways

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

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

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