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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- 4.3C051
Founder Transitions
A guide for founders, long-serving executive directors and boards facing a founder transition. It explains the particular challenges when a founder or long-term leader steps down and how to plan for both planned and unplanned departures. It argues that supporting founders through the exit protects their legacy and the organisation. Boards and executives use it to prepare the handover, the search and the founder's next role. It is part of the Casey Foundation's executive transition series.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 4.3C052
Leadership Transition: Overcoming the Threat of Founders Syndrome
A short INTRAC Praxis paper on leadership transitions in civil society organisations, with a focus on founders stepping down. It describes these transitions as rocky and risky yet normal. Drawing on the experiences of several CSOs in the global South that have been through the process, it suggests how founders, boards and funders can make the handover smoother. It expands on a series of INTRAC blogs from 2016 and is a free PDF.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 4.3C053
Making Founder Successions Work
An article from the Spring 2018 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, republished by Bridgespan. It questions the common advice that a founder should make a clean break when stepping down. The authors argue that many nonprofits gain when they plan a deliberate, bounded ongoing role for the departing founder. Boards, founders and successors use it to discuss what role the founder should keep and how to set its limits.
ClassicShort readFree - 14.1C184
Questions to ask before starting an organization
A one-page checklist from Pillar Nonprofit Network in London, Ontario, for people thinking of starting a nonprofit. It asks whether someone already does the work, which structure fits, whether the need is lasting, whether others will help, whether money can be found and whether founders will hand control to a board. It then outlines the steps for incorporation and charitable status in Canada and points to a longer Imagine Canada guide.
Start hereCurrentShort readFree - 15.1C186
The Successful Social Entrepreneur's Micro Guide
A short cheat sheet for social entrepreneurs, from the Imaginate method. It splits the path from first idea to scaling into 4 phases. For each phase it lists what to do and what to read. It is for founders of nonprofits and social ventures at an early stage. Readers use it to check where they are and pick their next steps and reading.
EmergingShort readFreeNonprofit Builder tool - 15.1C225
Navigating The Make-Or-Break Years As You Create Hockey Stick Growth
A short Forbes article based on Bobby Martin's book The Hockey Stick Principles. It sets out 4 stages new ventures go through: tinkering, the blade years, the growth inflection point and surging growth. It focuses on the blade years, which often last 3 to 4 years, and gives 3 lessons: bootstrap longer than you expect, keep adjusting the model, and look after your first users. Useful for founders who need patience in the early years.
ClassicShort readFree - 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 - 15.2C191
Start Your Social Enterprise
A 28-page start-up guide for people setting up a social enterprise or trading venture. After an introduction to what social enterprise is, it has chapters on mission, market, money, social impact, people, sales and marketing, legal structure, the business plan and looking after yourself, ending with a summary. Founders work through it chapter by chapter as they shape their plan.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree - 2.5C207
Big Enough. Simple Enough. Cheap Enough.
A short article by Kevin Starr of the Mulago Foundation on how to judge whether a solution can scale. Real scale usually depends on a "doer" and a "payer" other than the founding organisation, often government. Starr tests each model three ways: is the market big enough, is it simple enough for the doer to deliver, and is it cheap enough for the payer, benchmarked against what payers already spend. Founders use it to redesign models before scaling.
CurrentShort readFree - 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 - 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 - 15.2C190
Social Enterprises in Asia
An introductory guide to social enterprise published by Kordant Philanthropy Advisors in 2014 and held on IssueLab. It explains what social enterprises are and the main models they use, drawing on examples from Asia. It is for nonprofit leaders and founders in the region who are weighing whether earned income or a social enterprise model fits their mission.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree
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