Resource library · free toolkits, templates and guides
The practical library for people who build nonprofits
230 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 welcome230 resources · 15 topics · 146 publishers · 213 free to use
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22 resources found
- Search: equity
- 5.3C070
Awake to Woke to Work
A publication from Equity in the Center, developed with more than 120 DEI and race equity practitioners, on building a race equity culture inside an organisation. It sets out the Race Equity Cycle, a set of stages from awake to woke to work, and the organisational levers that move an organisation through them. It gives tactics and practices for shifting culture. Free companion tools include an action plan form, a glossary and a pulse check.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree with sign-up - 5.3C071
Creating Cultures and Practices for Racial Equity
A toolbox from Race Forward for arts and cultural organisations working on racial equity. It opens with a glossary and steps for building equity into culture and practice, then gives 5 tools: an organisational equity impacts and outcomes assessment, a choice points worksheet, DreamYard's Equity Prime, the R.A.C.E. Lens and a values-based equity tool. Teams use the worksheets to review policies, programmes, grantmaking, contracts and budgets.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 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 - 5.4C073
A Change Management & Deep Equity Primer
A primer by Sheryl Petty, co-released by GEO, on leading organisational change with equity at the core. It introduces Equity-Embedded Change Management and covers readiness, assessment, buy-in, consultant and client challenges, communication, implementation, getting unstuck, what progress means and leaders' inner work. It ends with a glossary, resources and a framework for deep equity capacity building. Staff, boards, consultants and funders use it to plan equity change.
Start hereCurrentShort readFree - 5.1C063
HR Toolkit for Racial Equity
A toolkit in which the W.K. Kellogg Foundation shares the HR practices it uses to advance racial equity. Its 10 sections give samples for equity standards and principles, an employee value proposition, employee resource groups, learning opportunities, recruitment partner talking points, interview questions, recruitment tracking, performance indicators, recognition programmes and a 17-item climate survey. HR teams adapt the samples for their own hiring, pay and promotion practice.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 10.1C132
Centering Equity in Collective Impact
An article from the Winter 2022 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review in which the authors of the collective impact approach revisit it with equity at the centre. It sets out 5 strategies: use local data and context to aim solutions, pursue systems change alongside programmes, share power within the collaborative, listen to and act with the community, and build equity-focused leadership and accountability. Coalitions and funders use it to review their own collective impact work.
CurrentShort readFree with sign-up - 4.4C058
Management in a Changing World
A management handbook from The Management Center for managers in nonprofits, education and social change groups. It follows Managing to Change the World and pairs the Center's established tools with new approaches and stories. Topics include building relationships, delegating, setting roles and goals, prioritising and deciding, developing staff, giving and receiving feedback, handling performance problems, managing up and sideways, and building a healthy team culture.
Start hereCurrentKey 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 - 7.1C236
Shifting the Evaluation Paradigm: The Equitable Evaluation Framework
The publication that sets out the Equitable Evaluation Framework, from the Equitable Evaluation Initiative with GEO. It treats equity as both the means and the end of evaluation, and invites foundations and nonprofits to rethink why and how they evaluate so practice reflects their values. It questions long-standing habits, such as favouring one kind of evidence or truth, and argues for modern definitions of validity, rigour and complexity. Written mainly for evaluation, learning and strategy staff.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 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 - 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 - 7.2C237
Why Am I Always Being Researched?
Chicago Beyond's guidebook on the power dynamics in research and evaluation between community organisations, researchers and funders. It names seven inequities held in place by power: access, information, validity, ownership, value, accountability and authorship. For each, it gives questions and tools that community organisations, researchers and funders can use to examine bias, share power and get closer to the truth about what works.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 13.4C245
Sharing Power with Communities: A Field Guide
A field guide from Community Wealth Partners for nonprofits and funders that want the communities they serve to help make decisions. It covers the groundwork and principles first, then three models: an advisory team, participatory processes, and bringing community members inside the organisation. It helps you choose the right one, flags common pitfalls, and draws on examples from United Way of Rhode Island, Miriam's Kitchen, Child Care Aware of America, the Greater Rochester Health Foundation and others.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 10.3C139
Transactions, Transformations, Translations
A report for funders and movement groups on how to measure movement building. It argues for metrics that capture both transactional and transformational change, with a matrix across 10 movement-building strategies. It looks beyond single organisations to whether groups can act together as a larger force, and asks that measures be co-created with the field. Recommendations cover new measures, capacity to use them, leadership development and movement-level metrics.
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 - 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 - 2.2C023
Developing a Theory of Change
Guidance for funders and programme teams planning social change efforts. Part 1 explains theory of change concepts, benefits and limits. Part 2 gives step-by-step guidance, exercises and examples for writing an equitable theory of change. Part 3 provides fillable templates for components, assumptions and audiences. Part 4 shows example models. The guide stresses equity and community engagement, and it replaces a 2004 guide the foundation commissioned from ORS Impact.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 4.1C043
A Guide to Building a Successful Leadership Development Program
A step-by-step guide for organisations that design or fund leadership development programmes. It draws on evaluations of the fellowship programmes run by Schusterman and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. It sets out 5 recommendations: make space for openness, develop emotional intelligence, build relationships on purpose, design a sound coaching approach and promote collaboration across sectors. It also includes a programme-building checklist, evaluation findings and further reading on equity in leadership development.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 5.1C232
Sustainable Jobs for Organizers: A Toolkit for a Stronger Movement
A free online toolkit for turning burnout jobs into sustainable ones, made by All Due Respect with the Staffing the Mission project. It works through 10 key areas: compensation, insurance, diversity, equity and inclusion, supervision, employee voice, transparent communication, professional development, workplace conditions, hours of work, and the particular stresses of organizing. It offers a discussion guide, tables and checklists, written for organizing groups but useful to any small nonprofit.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 5.4C231
Holding People and Teams: An Organizational Handbook for Growth, Care & Accountability
A free handbook from Change Elemental for organisations that want systems which support shared leadership, care and accountability at the same time. It covers team agreements, feedback practices, role clarity and accountability processes, and how they fit together so people can grow without accountability becoming punitive. Written for teams working on equity and collaborative ways of working, and shared as an open Google Doc.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree - 5.4C239
The Future Is Collective
A practical guide by Niloufar Khonsari for nonprofit and social justice leaders who want their workplace to reflect their values. It shows how to decentralise power and set up collective governance, build transparency, equity and mutual care into daily operations, and explain structural changes to funders. It also covers everyday conflict, difficult team dynamics and job terminations, handled with a compassionate, justice-centred approach.
CurrentKey manual or guideBook - 13.1C243
Funding Organisational Development: From Insight to Action
Funding Organisational Development: From Insight to Action is a practical guide for funders seeking to strengthen the resilience, effectiveness and long-term sustainability of the organisations they support. Developed by Philea's Organisational Development Community of Practice and informed by experienced practitioners, it explores how funders can move beyond one-off capacity-building interventions towards more holistic, trust-based approaches that centre partner agency, equity and context. The publication offers a practical ten-step framework for designing or renewing organisational development support, addressing challenges facing civil society today.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree
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