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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8 resources found
- Search: digital risk
- 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 - 12.1C155
The Charity Digital Code of Practice 2025
A voluntary code of good practice that helps UK charities benchmark digital progress and make digital decisions. It sets out 8 principles: leadership, user led, culture, strategy, data, skills, risk and ethics, and adaptability. Separate editions exist for charities with income above and below £1 million. The 2025 update adds a data principle, AI guidance across all principles, tips on buying digital tools, and stronger cyber security and accessibility sections.
Start hereCurrentKey manual or guideFree - 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 - 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 - 11.1C141
Holistic Security: A Strategy Manual for Human Rights Defenders
A strategy manual that helps human rights defenders plan for their security and well-being. It joins self-care, digital security and information security with traditional security management. The online version has 4 sections that form a cycle: Prepare, Explore, Strategise and Act. Chapters cover context and threat analysis, security plans, organisational security and protests. Exercises, further reading and a separate Trainers' Manual support group workshops.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree - 12.2C157
Responsible Data Handbook
A handbook on the ethics and risks of collecting and using data about people in international development work. It follows the project lifecycle: designing a project, managing data, getting, understanding and sharing data, and closing a project. Chapters can be read alone or in sequence. A team of 12 practitioners wrote it in a 3-day book sprint. It is free under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree - 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 - 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
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