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 โ€œtoolโ€, we mean anything that helps incubators thriveโ€”software, templates, handbooks, or any resource that lets you level up your game. Weโ€™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.ย 

Share your tool! If you have a tool, template, or resource that others could benefit from, submit it for review.ย 

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A Strategic Mess – Developing an Impact Strategy

When it comes to developing strategy, itโ€™s easy for a social ventureโ€™s leadership team to revert back to the same old strategic planning process theyโ€™ve used in the past: Inertia is real and repeating the same process, even if you know itโ€™s not the best, is comfortable and easy.

Organization: SSIR

Board Risk Resilience Checklist

Effective governance means more than compliance. It requires awareness, foresight, and the courage to lead with purpose in times of uncertainty. This checklist is designed to help nonprofit boards and executives assess whether their organization is prepared to respond to todayโ€™s shifting legal, political, financial, and reputational risks.

Organization: BoardSource.org

Application Form Template

This is a sample of a program application form for a incubator. It also includes clear description of the program, what is included in the program, and timelines.

Organization: Innovate UK

Incubation Monthly Update and Review Template

Use this template to gather monthly updates on all programs within the incubator and review progress, challenges, to help identify corrections and pivots

Organization: Villgro

Mentor Feedback Template

Use this form to gather quick feedback from your mentors, as they meet with the entrepreneurs after each session.

Organization: UK-South Africa Tech Hub

Mentor Application Form

The hub can use this template to collect details of potential mentors.

Organization: UK-South Africa Tech Hub

Incubator – Mentor SLA Document

Outline of an agreement / SLA document between incubator hub and the mentor

Organization: UK-South Africa Tech Hub

The Hub Specialization Playbook

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

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

Organization: The Human Edge

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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 arenโ€™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

The Innovation Playbook

The primary purpose of this Innovation Playbook is to provide a structured yet
comprehensive guide for stakeholders involved in the creation, management, and growth of
incubation and acceleration programs. The Playbook can serve as a guide to those looking to
support innovations, specifically in the health sector, with a lens of affordability and
accessibility. This playbook has been designed to simplify the processes associated with
establishing and operating successful incubation initiatives, ensuring consistency, efficiency,
and effectiveness across programs and mitigate challenges for new operators.

Organization: Villgro Philippines & USAID

Empowering FP/RH innovations for scale – Summary

Empowering FP/RH Innovations for Scale is a set of resources to provide an approach to stakeholders to better assess and support the scale-up of FP/RH innovations and accelerate progress towards FP/RH goals. Along with a summary, this includes a scale-up guide, toolkits and templates, and scale-up lessons and case studies. These resources are not exhaustive and build off and reference other tools and resources.
Resources include –
1. Summary and userโ€™s guide
2. Scale-up guide
3. Toolkit & Templates
4. Scale-up lessons and case studies

Organization: USAID & MOMENTUM Innovation Accelerator

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