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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25 resources found
- Search: ai assessment
- 12.2C158
Data Maturity Assessment
A free online self-assessment that gives a snapshot of an organisation's data and AI maturity. It scores 3 areas: purpose, practice (data quality, security, ethics and infrastructure) and people (leadership, talent and culture), plus a separate AI score. Results come in a shareable format for talks with colleagues and funders, with recommended guides and resources for next steps. It is aimed at social impact organisations, government agencies, funders and universities.
CurrentTool or templateFree with sign-up - 12.3C161
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Suitability Toolkit for Nonprofits
A toolkit that helps nonprofits judge whether an AI or machine learning solution is a good fit before they build, buy or use it. It aims to build in-house ability to assess AI options, anticipate problems and make informed decisions, with attention to transparency, data governance and traceability. It is meant for project managers, developers and system operators in nonprofit organisations.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 7.3C095
Organizational Learning Self-Assessment Tool
An 18-question self-assessment that nonprofits and grantmakers use to gauge their learning culture in 5 to 10 minutes. Items are rated 1 to 5 across 3 areas: organisational habits and behaviours, leadership and strategic direction, and capacity and resources. Each area suggests 5, 15 or 30 minute actions and further resources. Teams use it to start a discussion, and can share it with funders or partners.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 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 - 8.2C199
Financial Health Check Assessment Tool
A free self-assessment for small and medium NGOs, first published by Mango as Mango's Health Check and now kept by Humentum. Any staff member or trustee can complete it without finance training. It scores the organisation on 6 areas: planning and budgeting, basic accounting systems, internal controls, staffing, grant management and financial reporting. The result is a score with recommendations and a glossary of financial terms.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 11.1C145
Security to go: a risk management toolkit for humanitarian aid agencies
A toolkit for staff who are not security specialists and need to set up basic safety and security systems in a new context or a sudden emergency. Modules are grouped into planning and preparedness, response, and support services. Topics include actor mapping, risk assessment, digital security, security plans, facility security, communications, travel safety, medical evacuation and private security providers. It contains a risk rating matrix, a security plan template, sample SOPs, checklists and a glossary.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 13.2C176
Trust-Based Philanthropy Self-Assessment Tool
A self-assessment that helps a grantmaking organisation reflect on how far it has put trust-based philanthropy into practice. It covers 4 areas: culture, structures, leadership and grantmaking practices. Each section gives reflective prompts on how trust shows up and where practice needs work. It is available as an online interactive tool and a fillable PDF. Foundation teams use it to plan changes.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 9.1C112
A Practical Guide to Integrated Communications
A workbook from Idealware that helps nonprofit staff plan communications across channels as one system. It has 18 worksheets in 4 sections: getting started with a self-assessment and an ideal channel mix, planning a campaign with schedules and a week-by-week calendar, planning ongoing maintenance content, and combining both into an integrated week and a longer-term plan. Teams can work through it from start to finish or use single worksheets.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 6.4C082
Resiliency Guide
A discussion and self-assessment guide that helps funders and nonprofits talk openly about the pressures nonprofits face and reflect on organisational strengths and weak spots. First developed in 2014, it has gone through several versions and draws on the 2020 study Resilience at Work. Grantmakers use it to decide where, when and how to invest in capacity building, and grantees use it with their funders.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 11.1C142
Protection Manual for Human Rights Defenders
A manual from Protection International that gives human rights defenders knowledge and tools for security and protection. It sets out a method for defenders to assess their own risk and to define security rules and procedures that fit their situation. The content draws on more than 25 years of staff experience and has been tested in protection work and training workshops. Trainers use it to run security and protection courses.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 1.2C008
Bridgespan Organizational Effectiveness Framework survey
An online team survey on Org360 that runs a Bridgespan-based organisational assessment for nonprofits. It has 85 questions and takes about 34 minutes. Areas include strategic clarity, governance, financial sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion, with rating questions and open reflection questions. Leaders, board members and staff respond, and Org360 produces an automatic report with strengths, gaps and a development plan. It is free to use after sign-up.
Start hereEmergingTool or templateFree with sign-upNonprofit Builder tool - 3.4C039
Good Governance: A Health Check
A board self-assessment tied to the Code of Good Governance (3rd edition) in Northern Ireland. It has 92 questions across 5 principles: understanding the board's role, working as a team, control and risk, integrity, and openness and accountability. Boards rate each item not met, part met or fully met, record evidence against suggested prompts and fill in an action table for each principle with actions, owners and dates.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 8.2C107
StrongNonprofits Toolkit
A free set of financial management tools for nonprofit finance staff and leaders. It is organised by topic: budgeting, navigating uncertainty, cash flow, operations, data and analysis, audit readiness, and governance and strategy. Downloads include a financial risk self-assessment, an equity in financial management self-assessment, a financial infrastructure self-assessment and a fiscal management activities calendar in Excel. Short videos from BDO explain equity in the finance function.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 9.2C118
Stories Worth Telling
A guide from Georgetown's Center for Social Impact Communication and the Meyer Foundation, based on a review of storytelling at more than 150 social impact organisations. It covers 5 building blocks of a story: character, trajectory, authenticity, action-oriented emotions and a hook. It then walks through a story cycle of planning, production, distribution and evaluation, and ends on building a storytelling culture. Companion checklists and tools include a culture self-assessment and a story bank guide.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree with sign-up - 11.2C146
Developing child safeguarding policy and procedures
A facilitator's guide for workshops that help organisations write or strengthen a child safeguarding policy and procedures. 4 sessions cover risk and mitigation, drafting or strengthening a policy, implementation, and roles and responsibilities. Exercises include a risk assessment, a SWOT analysis, a self-assessment against the Keeping Children Safe Standards, designing a reporting procedure and mapping local resources. An appendix gives notes on planning and running a learning event.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 2.3C026
SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
A section of the Community Tool Box on running a SWOT analysis with a group. It explains what SWOT is, when to use it, the internal factors (strengths, weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities, threats), how to run the analysis with a diverse group of stakeholders and how to turn the results into goals and action plans. Community groups and nonprofits use it for strategic planning and to review new or existing initiatives.
Start hereClassicTool or templateFree - 6.1C075
Employee Wellbeing Survey for Nonprofit Organizations
A 12-question staff survey template for nonprofit teams that takes about 5 minutes to complete. It covers retention, workload and boundaries, burnout risk, purpose, psychological safety, manager and team support, pay fairness and organisational care, plus 1 open question. Responses are anonymous. Leaders run it twice a year, or quarterly in periods of change, then pick 1 or 2 actions and report back to staff within 2 weeks.
Start hereEmergingTool or templateFree with sign-upNonprofit Builder tool - 11.3C153
Charities and risk management (CC26)
Guidance from the charity regulator for England and Wales on how trustees identify, assess and manage risks to their charity. It defines a risk as any event that could stop a charity achieving its aims or carrying out its strategies, with examples such as reputational damage, lost funding, poor investments and policy changes. Trustees use it to set up and review a risk register and to report on risk in their accounts.
Start hereCurrentKey manual or guideFree - 4.1C046
Nonprofit Leader All-Rounder 360
A 360-degree feedback survey for nonprofit leaders with 74 questions across 16 leadership domains. The leader rates themselves and invites colleagues, board members and staff to rate them, so self-view can be compared with others' views. It takes about 30 minutes to complete and is meant to be repeated every 6 to 12 months. Org360 produces a report with scores, strengths, growth areas and a development plan.
EmergingTool or templateFree with sign-upNonprofit Builder tool - 5.3C072
Awareness to Action
A BoardSource guide for boards and chief executives working on racial equity together. It offers 3 starting points to assess where a board stands now, each paired with action steps to move it forward. It notes that the work is nonlinear and needs sustained commitment. It also covers why the guide was written and policies and practices to avoid the glass cliff for new leaders of colour.
EmergingKey manual or guideFree - 5.4C074
Understanding effective safeguarding culture
A discussion tool from Bond, the UK network for international development organisations, for talking about what a positive safeguarding culture looks like. It describes behaviours that show whether a culture follows good safeguarding practice across 6 areas: policies and procedures, safer programming, a survivor-centred approach, awareness raising, safer recruitment and reporting. Staff at all levels use it in workshops, alongside a separate Bond tool for leaders.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 1.4C011
Reinventing Organizations
A book on self-managing organisations based on 3 years of research. Part 1 traces how new organisational models have emerged over history. Part 2 is a practical handbook with case examples, such as the Dutch home care nonprofit Buurtzorg, on structures and daily practices. Part 3 looks at the conditions these organisations need, how to start one and how to change an existing one. Teams read it before trying flatter structures. An illustrated version also exists.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideBook - 1.5C219
Scaling Up
Verne Harnish's book on growing an organisation through the stages from a few people to hundreds. It's built around 4 decisions every growing organisation has to get right: people, strategy, execution and cash. It comes with one-page worksheets, including the One-Page Strategic Plan, and routines such as daily and weekly meeting rhythms and priorities. Written for companies, it's widely used by nonprofit leadership teams that are growing fast.
ClassicKey manual or guideBook - 3.4C040
Purpose-Driven Board Leadership
A discussion guide that helps a board apply BoardSource's 4 principles of purpose-driven board leadership: purpose before organisation, respect for the ecosystem, an equity mindset, and authorised voice and power. It offers 3 exercises: discussing a case from the Museum of Us, reviewing the board's most recent major decision against each principle, and working through an upcoming decision together. Boards use it in meetings and retreats.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 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
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