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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. 

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Social Investment Toolkit

  • 5 Views

In 8 modules, the toolkit guides entrepreneurs on each step of the way, from how to define your social mission to creating a compelling investor pitch. It also shows entrepreneurs how social investors think and what they are looking for. There is also a social investment readiness test to help entrepreneurs work out which areas to focus on.

  • Category: Financial Sustainability
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: Social Investment Toolkit

Financial Sustainability of Startup Incubators

  • 5 Views

The primary objective of this report is to
outline various revenue streams (not to be conflated with funding sources) accessible to
startup incubators and recommend a revenue mix which ensures that the incubator remains
focused on its core activities related to provision of entrepreneurial support to its incubatee
startups.

  • Category: Financial Sustainability
  • Type: Research

Organization: Atal Innovation Mission & Niti Aayog

Best Practices for Designing Inclusive Programs & Support

  • 2 Views

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 designing inclusive programs to support the diverse entrepreneurs in the ecosystem.

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

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Business Incubator Managers Incubation Management Training

  • 6 Views

The Business Incubation Management Training Program was created for business incubator managers and stakeholders in developing countries and emerging markets. Through its network of certified facilitators, infoDev has helped more than one thousand people increase their understanding of business incubator models, how to finance an incubator, monitoring and evaluation, mentoring programs, and more. The training program was designed for face-to-face delivery with each module requiring one day of classroom learning.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: infoDev, World Bank & IFC

Incubator Collaborative Learnings Document

  • 3 Views

A compilation of the challenges and struggles of incubators and accelerators in the Global South as well as proposed solutions sourced from the dozens of online meetings, and in-person workshops hosted by Pollinate Impact. Spoiler Alert – Irrespective of the geographich location or the type of entrepreneur supported, the challenges and the solutions largely remain consistent across the field.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Pollinate Impact

Landscape Analysis of the Uganda Innovation Ecosystem

  • 4 Views

The report provides an overview of the research on the Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs) in Uganda, how they are set up, what they offer, to whom, and how. It particularly looks at the state and opportunity of collaboration among stakeholders in the ecosystem, especially among the ESOs, but also with the public sector. It gives a list of 16 recommendations to bring the Ugandan entrepreneurship ecosystem forward and ensure that entrepreneurs get better support faster.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Research

Organization: Response Innovation Lab & Start Up Uganda

Lean Research: Human Centered Approach to Research

  • 7 Views

Lean Research is an approach and an initiative to improve the practice of data collection involving people and communities in development and humanitarian contexts.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: D-Lab

Lean Data Approaches to Measure Social Impact

  • 3 Views

In this course, learn the Lean Data methodology, a new way to collect insights from customers in order to measure your outcomes and make decisions that maximize impact.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Acumen

Embedding Circularity in Entrepreneurial Support: Learning from Pilot Programs

  • 3 Views

The document enlists the best practices and recommendations for incubators and accelerators to support circularity entrepreneurs. Impact Hub launched the “Circularity by Design” program in 2021 with the hypothesis that just like profitability is a design principle for most businesses, circularity can also become a design principle for enterprises. Impact Hub developed the “Embedding Circularity” toolkit for incubators and accelerators, provided capacity building to business support organizations, and validated the tools with entrepreneurs and businesses through pilot incubation and acceleration programs with 12 Impact Hubs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: Impact Hub

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Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostic Toolkit

  • 1 Views

This resource is a practical methodology to understand how entrepreneurship ecosystems work, identify their structural conditions, and guide evidence-based decision-making.

The model provides a clear way to analyze entrepreneurship ecosystems based on their core elements: the eight structural domains, the participation of key actors, the stages of the entrepreneurial journey, and digital maturity as a cross-cutting component. It enables the identification of strengths, gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities for coordinated action in each territory.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: ANDE

Reimagining the Future of Entrepreneurship Support Organisations in East Africa

  • 52 Views

The report identifies the interconnected challenges facing entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs), including incubators and accelerators. This WDI report takes a solutions-oriented approach for better serving entrepreneurs, maximizing the impact of limited donor resources, and strengthening the pipeline of investable companies.

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Reports & Research

Organization: William Davidson Institute

Supporting Waste Management & Circular Economy Innovation

  • 9 Views

The toolkit brings together lessons from Kenya’s waste and circular economy ecosystem and global best practices. It is designed to be practical, adaptable, and action-oriented.

  • Clear explanations of waste management and circular economy principles
  • Guidance on designing and running effective support programmes for waste-focused SGBs
  • Real-world case studies from Kenya and beyond
  • Best practices across the full enterprise support journey — from recruitment and programme design to post-programme support and ecosystem engagement
  • Tools and frameworks for measuring environmental, social, and business impact
  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Toolkits

Organization: ANDE

Application Form Template & Program Information Kit

  • 5 Views

This is a sample of a program application form for a University based incubator. It also includes clear description of the program, what is included in the program, and the expectations from applicant entrepreneurs.

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

Organization: Oxford University Innovation

Building Strong Funder Relationships & Navigating Funding Rejections

  • 5 Views

Every nonprofit leader knows the thrill of submitting a compelling grant proposal—and the sting of receiving a “no.” But what if rejection could be a catalyst for deeper alignment, stronger relationships, and future funding success?

That was the heart of our recent Masterclass hosted on the Catalyst NOW platform, “Building Stronger Funder Relationships and Navigating Funding Rejections,” featuring wisdom from sector leaders Tia Hodges, President & CEO, MetLife Foundation, Tanya Jaramilla, Director of Impact & Operations, Julian Grace Foundation, and Natalie Rekstad, Founder & CEO of Black Fox Global.

  • Category: Donor & Investor Relations
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: Black Fox Global

Investment Readiness Accelerator for Businesses

  • 4 Views

This is a 3 in 1 tool that:
1) assists incubators and accelerators how to map up investor prospects through a sales funnel,
2) offers a fundraising pipeline management tool, and
3) includes an extensive due diligent checklist that includes the following broad categories – Product feasibility,vision and strategy, market attractiviness,business model, financial health etc

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection
  • Type: Templates

Organization: ANGIN

Frontier Incubator Masterclass Series

  • 2 Views

Frontier Incubators launched a series of webinars to connect leaders from global accelerator and incubator programs with program managers who are seeking to serve entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific. Key insights from the session include the value of alumni as ambassadors, partnering with other programs, creating mutually beneficial partner arrangements, the potential of sector specific cohorts, the importance of program partner selection, ongoing application opportunities, incentive structures, and the significance of clear selection criteria.

  • Category: Pipeline Sourcing & Selection

Organization: Frontier Incubators (DFAT)

Running Effective Mentoring Programmes

  • 5 Views

Is your mentoring programme not delivering the results you were expecting? Are you planning to run a new mentoring programme?

Many structured mentoring programmes achieve sub-par results because their planning and execution does not draw on best practice. Often, they start off strong but then slowly fizzle out, and other times, they don’t even take off.

  • Category: Enterprise Support & Portfolio Management
  • Type: Trainings & Capacity Building

Organization: The Human Edge

Empowering FP/RH innovations for scale – Scale Up Lessons

  • 4 Views

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 user’s guide
2. Scale-up guide
3. Toolkit & Templates
4. Scale-up lessons and case studies

  • Category: Incubator Design, Strategy & Impact
  • Type: Best Practices & Lessons Learned

Organization: USAID & MOMENTUM Innovation Accelerator

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