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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15 resources found
- Search: ai use policy
- 12.3C160
Nonprofit AI Policy Builder
A free online tool that helps a nonprofit draft its own AI policy covering governance, data privacy, risk management and ethics. Users share their mission and AI use, choose a light, standard or advanced policy, and answer tailored questions. The tool uses generative AI to draft the policy, which the team then edits and publishes. A draft takes about 20 minutes and needs no sign-up.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 9.4C127
Shifting the dial
A 16-page NPC guide for charities, funders and consultants who run or back policy change campaigns. It covers 3 areas: planning a campaign with impact in mind, choosing the right tools to evaluate it, and learning and improving as the campaign goes on. It draws on examples from several UK organisations. Teams use it to track progress, adjust strategy and respond to changes in the policy environment.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 12.3C162
Choosing Your AI Path: A Framework for Nonprofit Leaders to Make Strategic Choices
An article and framework that help nonprofit leaders decide how to use AI. It sorts choices into 3 dimensions: augment internal operations, advance mission and programmes, and advocate on AI governance and policy. Each dimension has field examples, strategy elements and low-cost no-regrets actions. A section sets out what institutional funders can do for grantees. Companion worksheets help teams apply the framework.
EmergingKey manual or guideFree - 12.3C159
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics for Nonprofits: Toolkit
A workshop kit that helps nonprofits design, deploy and use AI responsibly. This first part focuses on the principle of fairness. It contains a facilitator guide, a master slide deck, case studies, key AI and machine learning terms, AI ethics concepts and an example Miro board. Participants learn AI ethics basics, then apply fairness to humanitarian and international development use cases.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 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 - 12.3C163
Pursuing the Promise of AI
A guide for African nonprofits on using AI in their programmes. It sets out 4 stages of AI adoption: explore and prepare, prove and learn, embed and operate, and sustain or scale, each with guiding questions. It draws on interviews and a focus group with over 40 nonprofits, social enterprises, funders, experts and intermediaries. It describes the type of funding needed at each stage, from risk-tolerant early capital to patient operating support.
EmergingKey manual or guideFree - 10.3C138
Networked Change
A research report from NetChange that studies 47 advocacy campaigns from the previous 10 years that won policy or attitude change, most of them in North America. It sorts them into institutional heavyweights, grassroots upstarts and directed-network campaigns, and finds the last group did best. It sets out 4 principles of directed-network campaigning, with operational tools, analysis and recommendations. Campaigners use it to design campaigns that mix central strategy with supporter-led action.
ClassicResearch and evidenceFree - 9.3C125
Influencing for Impact Guide
An 81-page Oxfam guide for civil society organisations, activists and campaigners who design influencing strategies for programmes or stand-alone campaigns. It gives steps, tools and examples on context analysis, power analysis, setting objectives, building narratives and choosing tactics. Further sections cover research, lobbying, digital and social media, mobilisation, and changing behaviours and social norms. Teams use it to plan, run and learn from influencing work.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 6.3C079
Managing Stress in Humanitarian Workers
Guidelines that help humanitarian organisations build policies and systems for staff care. They set out key principles and standards for staff psychosocial wellbeing across the deployment cycle, and apply to both national and international staff. HR teams and managers use them to review their staff care system and plan improvements. Available in 5 languages.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree - 11.2C149
PSEAH Implementation Quick Reference Handbook
A quick reference handbook on putting protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment (PSEAH) in place in an organisation or project. It is meant for organisations starting this work and for those checking their practice against current good practice. Each chapter includes a case study on how a specific organisation tackled the topic. The full text downloads from CHS Alliance via the Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub page.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 11.1C144
Good Practice Review 8: Humanitarian Security Risk Management
The 3rd edition of a widely used reference on security risk management for humanitarian organisations. Practitioner experts revised it over 3 years. Its 7 chapters cover foundations, ecosystems, organisational and operational elements, people, technology, and specific threats. The 2025 edition adds a person-centred approach, the security burden on national and local actors, partnership security, access and deconfliction, and digital risks such as disinformation and surveillance. Security managers use it to design policies and plans.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 2.5C206
A New Look at Strategic Pathways for Solving Social Problems at Scale
The research companion to Bridgespan's "Three Questions" article. The team reviewed the strategies of about 80 organisations in the US, Asia and Africa and interviewed leaders of 11, then grouped what they found into eight main pathways to impact at scale, from expanding direct services to shifting policy and practice. Leaders and funders use it to see which routes exist and which fit their model. It updates Bridgespan's 2014 work with new cases.
CurrentResearch and evidenceFree with sign-up - 5.1C062
Equitable Compensation Playbook
A playbook for HR and reward professionals in international NGOs who want to rethink pay policy. It aims to help organisations reduce pay inequality, including gaps between national and international staff, and make reward more transparent. It comes with a companion Excel worksheet, a video on how to use it and a podcast discussion. Organisations use it to review their current approach and plan changes to compensation policy and practice.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 7.2C089
Outcome Harvesting
A brief that introduces outcome harvesting, a participatory method for identifying, verifying and making sense of outcomes when cause and effect are unclear. The evaluator collects evidence of what changed and works back to assess whether and how the intervention contributed. It explains the core concepts and steps. Evaluators and teams use it for advocacy, policy and other complex work where results cannot be set in advance.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 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
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