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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33 resources found
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- 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 - 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 - 4.1C041
Coaching and Philanthropy: An Action Guide for Nonprofits
A guide for nonprofit leaders who are thinking about coaching. It draws on 3 years of data from the Coaching and Philanthropy Project, gathered from coached leaders, coaches, intermediaries and funders. Sections explain what coaching is, what it yields for leaders and organisations, common barriers and when to use it. A practical part covers readiness, finding and selecting a coach, running the engagement, paying for it and checking results. Case examples close the guide.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 5.1C064
Human Resources (HR) Toolkit for Small and Medium Nonprofit Actors
A 32-page toolkit for small and medium nonprofit, humanitarian and development organisations that want a formal system for managing people. It offers guidance, tips and checklists for writing or strengthening HR policies, plus a set of questions to review an existing HR framework, find gaps and set priority actions. It is written for HR staff, programme and operations teams, and finance and admin managers who handle basic HR.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 4.3C050
Building Leaderful Organizations
Volume 6 of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Executive Transition Monograph Series, written for nonprofit executives and boards. It sets out 3 approaches to succession planning: strategic leader development, emergency succession planning and departure-defined succession planning. A section on the tough issues covers common sticking points, and a resource list closes the guide. Boards and executives use it as a framework to start succession planning and to spread leadership across staff.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree - 4.1C044
Nonprofit Leadership Development Toolkit
A free toolkit for nonprofits that want to grow leaders from within. It comes with the Bridgespan article How Nonprofit Leadership Development Sustains Organizations and Their Teams. It contains sample competencies from Bridgespan's competency bank, a 70-20-10 development plan template that a manager and staff member fill in together, and guidance on rolling the approach out across an organisation's systems and culture. It is a download from the article page.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 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 - 4.4C056
Effective Delegation Process and Worksheet
A short guide and worksheet for managers who hand off work. It sets out 3 steps: agree on expectations using the 5 Ws and roles such as MOCHA, stay engaged through check-ins and reviews of work in progress, and debrief to share feedback and lessons. It explains how to adjust involvement to the person's skill and capacity and the task's stakes. The worksheet follows the 3 steps and comes as a Google Doc or Word file.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 4.4C059
Nonprofit Chief Operating Officer (COO) Resource Center
A Bridgespan hub of articles and samples on the nonprofit COO role, grouped in 3 parts. Becoming a COO covers FAQs and finding the right post. Being a COO covers running operations, CEO-COO partnership conversations, sources of support and the move to chief executive. Hiring a COO covers creating the position, finding candidates, role structures from the field and 3 sample job descriptions. Boards, CEOs and aspiring COOs use it.
EmergingKey online resourceFree - 6.4C203
Toolkit for Building Organizational Resilience
A free toolkit from the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, designed with the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. It helps a nonprofit team develop or update a crisis management plan, sharpen crisis communications, write a business continuity plan that keeps essential work running during disruption, and review disaster recovery plans. You request a copy with your name, email and organisation.
CurrentTool or templateFree with sign-up - 8.4C109
The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle
A short article on why nonprofits underfund overhead such as IT, finance systems, training and fundraising. It describes a 3-stage cycle: funders expect low overhead, nonprofits feel pressure to match, then underspend and underreport their costs. It cites data on real versus reported overhead rates. Closing sections set out what funders can do, such as general operating support, and what nonprofit leaders and boards can do.
ClassicShort readFree - 1.5C214
Nonprofit Lifecycles
A short book that sets out seven stages a nonprofit can pass through: idea, start-up, growth, maturity, decline, turnaround and terminal. For each stage it describes what programmes, management, governance, resources and systems typically look like. Leaders, boards, funders and consultants use it to place an organisation on the curve, spot the area that lags behind the others and plan capacity work that fits the stage. Copies are sold through the Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute and partners such as SaskCulture.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideBook - 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 - 4.2C047
Doing More with More: Putting Shared Leadership into Practice
An article on a 2-year learning community, from 2008 to 2010, in which leaders of 27 California civic participation nonprofits tried shared leadership. It reports results, such as 78 percent of participants growing their ability to develop staff as leaders. It names 4 preconditions: senior commitment, upfront planning time, sound basic management and clear accountability. It then describes 4 areas of change: leader mindsets and roles, structure, decision processes and culture.
Start hereClassicResearch and evidenceFree - 8.4C110
Full Cost Resources
A free collection of Nonprofit Finance Fund materials on the full cost of running a nonprofit. It contains the Full Cost Framework, 3 practices for getting started and building a full cost budget, a page on the 6 full cost areas, a short video series, and the Full Cost Communication Guide. The guide gives tips and sample scenarios for conversations between nonprofits and funders about grant terms.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 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 - 8.2C201
Cash Flow Projection Template
A free Excel template from Nonprofit Finance Fund for projecting cash coming in and going out each month across the year. It shows the expected cash balance month by month, so you can spot periods when cash will run short and estimate how much working capital you need to cover them. The page includes a short video on how to use it.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 1.5C216
Creating the COO Position
A free Bridgespan article on when and why nonprofits add a chief operating officer, drawn from a survey of COOs and interviews with COOs and executive directors. It covers the usual triggers, such as a chief executive stretched by a growing staff or a growth plan to deliver, the worries executive directors have about sharing control, and how organisations managed the transition. It links to Bridgespan's wider set of COO resources, including sample job descriptions.
CurrentShort readFree - 4.2C048
Leadership Lessons: Five Insights from Directors Sharing Power
A short article with 5 findings from co-directors who share the top job. Shared leadership reflects mission and identity. It becomes an ethos across the whole organisation, seen in practices like narrow pay ratios. It can mean more work while cutting the isolation of a solo leader. Co-leaders must manage when they speak for themselves or as a unit, including with funders who expect one contact. It depends on trust between partners.
ClassicShort readFree - 8.4C111
True Program Costs
A free guide and editable Excel template for working out the real cost of each programme. It follows 11 steps, from defining programmes and setting up cost centres to allocating salaries, direct costs, administration and fundraising, then reviewing the whole. An allocation methods chart helps teams choose bases such as staff time, floor space or client numbers. Leaders use the results to price services and see which programmes need subsidy.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 8.1C104
Fundraising for Social Change
A 496-page how-to handbook for small and mid-sized nonprofits that want to build a broad base of individual donors, written with racial, economic and climate justice groups in mind. It covers fundraising infrastructure, hiring a development director, working with consultants and coaches, budgeting and planning, and handling financial trouble. Spotlight sections carry reflections from working fundraisers. Teachers get a free instructor's manual and online extras.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideBook - 4.2C049
Learning Through Co-Leadership
A Bridgespan article series drawn from its Co-Leadership Learning Circle, a year-long peer group launched in 2023 for nonprofit leaders who share the top executive role. Co-leaders from 5 nonprofits, including CoGenerate, CADRE and Essential Access Health, describe why they chose co-leadership and how they build trust. Planned parts cover decision-making and conflict, roles and responsibilities, and the value of leading together. It is written for executives and funders.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 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 - 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 - 12.2C156
Getting Started with Data-Driven Decision Making: A Workbook
A short workbook that takes a nonprofit manager from a question to a simple process for using data in decisions. 9 worksheets guide the user to define an action question, decide what it means for the organisation, list what could be measured and what data exists, choose metrics, set a process for using them, and write an implementation action plan. Managers complete it alone or with a team.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 1.2C003
Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool
A self-assessment spreadsheet that nonprofits complete to rate their own capacity. Developed by the Marguerite Casey Foundation from The Conservation Company's Capacity Assessment Grid, it covers 4 areas: leadership, adaptive, management and operational capacity. It includes instructions for filling it in and a scoring calculation, so organisations can benchmark progress over time. Grantmakers also use the results to understand grantee capacity and track its growth during a grant.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 3.1C034
Guide de gouvernance pour les organismes à but non lucratif du milieu du sport et du loisir au Québec
A French-language governance guide for nonprofits in sport and recreation in Québec, many of them run by volunteers. Part 1 covers roles and responsibilities and the legal setting. Part 2 covers board structure and composition, board duties, how the board works and transparency. Nine annexes provide tools, including a board self-evaluation questionnaire, a board work plan, a skills grid, an executive director evaluation grid and a management dashboard.
EmergingKey manual or guideFree - 4.3C055
How to Plan and Execute an Emergency Succession
A short Blue Avocado article on emergency succession plans, which cover a sudden leader absence for 1 to 3 months. It walks through 4 parts: naming first and second acting successors with limits on authority, or splitting the role's functions among staff; a ranked communications plan; and an operational checklist of contacts, accounts and key dates. It links to an editable Word template that a board and staff can complete in under 2 hours.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 8.1C103
Fundraising Bright Spots
A research report from the Resetting Development project, which grew out of the UnderDeveloped study of nonprofit fundraising. It tells the stories of social change organisations that raise steady money from individual donors. It is for nonprofit leaders, boards and fundraising staff. Readers use the cases to rethink who owns fundraising in their organisation. A 2017 companion, Fundraising Bright Spots in Action, follows programme participants as they change their approach.
ClassicResearch and evidenceFree with sign-up - 8.2C200
A Budgeting Guide for NGOs
A free guide to budgeting for NGO managers and finance staff. It sets out a plan, do and review cycle for building and running a budget, a checklist for monitoring spending against the budget during the year, and tips from experienced NGO finance professionals. Managers use it to prepare annual and project budgets and to keep them on track.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree with sign-up
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