Resource library · free toolkits, templates and guides
The practical library for people who build nonprofits
211 really practical toolkits, templates and guides for nonprofit and NGO leaders, and the consultants and funders who support them. A mix of the classics and newer methods.
Suggestions are welcome211 resources · 15 topics · 137 publishers · 197 free to use
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22 resources found
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- 7.2C092
BetterEvaluation
A free knowledge platform and community on evaluation. Its Rainbow Framework groups monitoring and evaluation methods and processes into 7 tasks. The site has pages on evaluation methods, approaches and themes, a manager's guide to evaluation, a searchable resource library, and directories of training and academic programmes. Evaluators, commissioners and programme staff use it to choose and apply methods. It is part of the Global Evaluation Initiative.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 7.4C096
Feedback Resources
A resource page from Feedback Labs that groups tools for listening to the people organisations serve into 3 stages. Getting started includes research, a feedback tools repository and funder listening guides. Establishing practice includes the Feedback Quiz, a crash course and Listen4Good's step-by-step guide to equity-centred feedback. Later resources include LabStorms, a fellowship and a conversation deck. Nonprofits and funders use it to build feedback loops.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 10.3C140
Guide to Organizing from the Leading Change Network
A curated online guide from the Commons Social Change Library to the organising resources of the Leading Change Network. It gathers overviews, guides and manuals, tools and graphics, courses, training materials, videos and podcasts, and books. Skill sections cover one-on-ones, house meetings, team building, developing leadership, creating strategy and public narrative. Organisers and trainers use it as an entry point to the network's method and to resources in other languages.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 11.2C151
Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub (RSH)
A free online hub that helps humanitarian and development organisations, and smaller civil society organisations in particular, strengthen safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. It lists over 1,300 resources, including tools, guidance, training material and how-to notes, plus 140 consultants. National hubs serve 12 countries in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. Content is in 18 languages and follows the CAPSEAH framework.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 12.4C166
Security in a Box: Digital Security Tools and Tactics
A free online toolkit on digital security for civil society groups at risk. It has 2 parts. Tactics guides explain basic practices such as strong passwords and protection from malicious software. Tool guides give step by step instructions to install, set up and use security software and services. A global network of activists, trainers and security experts helped build it. Users follow the guides to secure devices, accounts and communications.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 13.2C174
Open and Trusting Grant-making commitments
A set of 8 commitments for UK funders who want to make grant-making more open and trusting. Funders commit to be clear, ask only what is needed, accept risk, decide quickly, share openly, give flexible funding, communicate purposefully and keep reporting proportionate. The commitments grew out of the COVID-19 response, and funders sign up publicly. Charities and funders use them to check grant practice.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 15.1C222
Social Entrepreneurship 101
A free 5-week online course from Acumen Academy for people new to social entrepreneurship. It covers 5 areas: what social entrepreneurship is, finding your problem and mission, theory of change and impact measurement, building a financially sustainable model, and scaling. It uses videos with founders such as Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org, reading and workshop guides and a case study. Acumen Academy also has a free course on business models for social enterprise.
Start hereCurrentKey online resourceFree - 15.3C197
Ten Nonprofit Funding Models
An article that sorts large nonprofits by how they raise money and names 10 funding models, from Heartfelt Connector and Member Motivator to Public Provider and Market Maker. For each model it describes the typical funders and organisations and the questions leaders should ask to test the fit. Leaders and boards use it to name their current model and discuss where to focus fundraising.
Start hereClassicKey online resourceFree - 1.2C002
A Guide to Organizational Capacity Assessment Tools
A memo for funders, consultants and nonprofits on choosing and using organisational capacity assessment tools. Informing Change reviewed 91 assessment tools, checklists and guides for the Hewlett Foundation. Sections cover methodology, what a good assessment experience looks like, cross-cutting lessons, how to select a tool and specific situations for using one. A companion spreadsheet database lists the tools. Its main finding is that the process around a tool matters as much as the tool.
ClassicKey online resourceFree - 1.2C005
Capacity for Conservation
A free online platform for conservation organisations that want to assess their strengths, plan their development and find learning resources. Built by BirdLife International and Fauna & Flora, it includes self-assessment and planning tools on organisational development and resilience, a resource library of over 260 tools and case studies, an eLearning hub with over 40 courses and an archive of recorded webinars. Teams use it to assess themselves and then follow up with matched resources.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 2.1C015
How Nonprofits and NGOs Can Get Real Value from Strategic Planning
A set of free strategic planning resources for nonprofit and NGO leaders. The lead article sets out 4 elements common to most planning approaches. Its PDF also includes Strategic Planning at a Glance, a one-page overview of the process and its key questions, and Useful Tools for Nonprofit Strategic Planning, a glossary of common tools. A separate FAQ covers practical questions boards and teams ask when judging if they are ready to plan.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 4.1C045
Theory U Tools (u-school for Transformation)
A free online set of Theory U methods from the Presencing Institute's u-school for Transformation, released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike licence. Tools include container building, the iceberg model, stakeholder and dialogue interviews, shadowing, learning journeys, case clinics, 3D modelling, empathy walks, guided journaling, prototyping and a listening assessment. Social Presencing Theater practices are also included. Facilitators and teams use them for group reflection and organisational or systems change.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 4.2C049
Learning Through Co-Leadership
A Bridgespan article series drawn from its Co-Leadership Learning Circle, a year-long peer group launched in 2023 for nonprofit leaders who share the top executive role. Co-leaders from 5 nonprofits, including CoGenerate, CADRE and Essential Access Health, describe why they chose co-leadership and how they build trust. Planned parts cover decision-making and conflict, roles and responsibilities, and the value of leading together. It is written for executives and funders.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 4.4C059
Nonprofit Chief Operating Officer (COO) Resource Center
A Bridgespan hub of articles and samples on the nonprofit COO role, grouped in 3 parts. Becoming a COO covers FAQs and finding the right post. Being a COO covers running operations, CEO-COO partnership conversations, sources of support and the move to chief executive. Hiring a COO covers creating the position, finding candidates, role structures from the field and 3 sample job descriptions. Boards, CEOs and aspiring COOs use it.
EmergingKey online resourceFree - 6.3C081
Mental Health & Wellbeing
A themed resource page from GISF that treats staff wellbeing as part of an organisation's duty of care. It collects guides, toolkits, papers, articles and tip sheets on stress, burnout, resilience, traumatic stress, mindfulness, psychological first aid and mental health and psychosocial support for aid workers. Security and HR staff in humanitarian and development NGOs use it to find guidance and tools.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 8.1C105
Change the Game Academy
A free online learning platform for community-based organisations that want to raise money and support from their own communities. It has 2 self-paced courses. Local Fundraising covers proposal writing, fundraising communication and donor relations. Mobilising Support covers winning commitment from stakeholders and decision makers, lobbying, social accountability and communication. Users create an account and follow the courses at any time. A Green version for groups managing natural resources launched in 2025.
CurrentKey online resourceFree with sign-up - 9.1C116
Framing Issues for Social Justice Impact
An online directory from the Commons Social Change Library that collects framing and messaging research on about 35 issues, from abortion and climate to crime, economy, housing, human rights and transport. Each entry gives the title, the producing organisation, country, year, format and a short summary of findings. Campaigners and communicators use it to find tested messaging research before writing their own messages and narratives.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 11.2C148
Misconduct Disclosure Scheme
An inter-agency scheme that lets aid employers share information on past substantiated cases of sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment when they check job candidates. It covers people with completed or ongoing disciplinary processes, beyond police records. Launched in 2019, it had more than 260 member organisations by March 2024, from INGOs and national NGOs to UN agencies. Between 2019 and 2023, over 137,000 checks led to 385 applications being rejected.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 14.1C182
How to set up a charity (CC21a)
Online guidance from the regulator for people thinking of starting a charity in England or Wales. It works through 7 steps: decide if a charity is the right option, set its purpose, choose a structure, write a governing document, choose a name, find trustees and fund the work. The legal detail is English, but founders elsewhere use the sequence as a checklist for their own start-up decisions.
ClassicKey online resourceFree - 14.1C183
Understand fiscal hosting
Online documentation from Open Collective Europe, a Belgian public utility foundation that acts as fiscal host for groups without their own legal body. It explains who does what among the collective, its administrators, the foundation and the Open Collective platform. It sets out the difference between a collective and a fund and what to check before applying. Grassroots and civic groups in Europe use it to decide whether fiscal hosting suits them.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 15.1C224
Systems Change Crash Course
A free, self-paced course from Ashoka Changemakers and Ashoka Globalizer. Through short videos and worksheets it walks you through how to spot the system behind a social problem and design a strategy to shift it. It draws on Ashoka's decades of work with social entrepreneurs who tackle root causes. Founders and teams use it to plan how their work can change policies, markets or norms.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 15.2C192
Trustees, trading and tax: how charities may lawfully trade (CC35)
Regulator guidance for charity trustees on selling goods and services. It explains when a charity can trade directly and when it should set up a separate trading subsidiary. It also covers the basic rules on using trading income for charitable purposes and how corporation tax applies to trading profits. Trustees and advisers use it when planning earned income or a charity shop.
ClassicKey online resourceFree
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