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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18 resources found
- Search: od plan template
- 2.2C021
Logic Model Development Guide
A guide to building and using a programme logic model, written as a companion to the Kellogg Evaluation Handbook. Chapter 1 introduces logic models with samples. Chapter 2 gives exercises for building a simple model, with checklists and a template. Chapter 3 shows how to expand it into a theory of change. Chapter 4 uses logic modelling to shape an evaluation plan. Appendices hold resources and blank forms. Programme staff and evaluators use it to plan and evaluate work.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 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 - 1.3C010
How to Build an Organisational Development Plan
A toolkit for Indian NGOs and their funders that takes an organisation from diagnosis to an OD plan. The plan document walks users through 4 steps to find where the NGO falls short and plan improvements. A companion Organisational Development Assessment Guide covers 13 capabilities and helps teams choose a short list to work on first. Bridgespan built it with 5 Indian intermediaries as part of Pay-What-It-Takes India. It is licensed CC BY 4.0.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 14.2C188
Thinking Through the Business Model
A short worksheet from Nonprofit Finance Fund that helps a nonprofit team describe its business model. It has 6 prompts: mission, market (who receives services and who pays for them), programmes, expenses, revenue and outreach. Teams fill it in together, often before a budget or strategy session, to see how the parts connect and where money and mission pull apart.
Start hereClassicTool or templateFree - 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 - 2.1C016
Scenario Planning for Nonprofits
A worksheet toolkit that helps nonprofit leaders plan under uncertainty. Teams first agree guiding principles, then work through 4 steps: identify key drivers of programmes, operations and funding at risk; build best, moderate and worst-case scenarios and model their effect on revenue; create a portfolio of actions with costs or savings; and set measurable trigger points that tell them when to act. Leadership teams fill it in together.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 14.2C187
The Mission Model Canvas
A short Strategyzer article presenting the Mission Model Canvas, a version of the Business Model Canvas for mission-driven organisations. Revenue streams become mission achievement, customer segments become beneficiaries, cost structure becomes mission cost or budget, channels become deployment and customer relationships become buy-in and support. Teams print the canvas and fill each box to test how their model creates value for beneficiaries and funders.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 14.2C189
Social Business Model Canvas
A method page from Elrha's Humanitarian Innovation Guide for innovation teams in humanitarian and development work. It explains the Social Business Model Canvas, Tandemic's version of the Business Model Canvas. The social version separates funders from users, splits the value created for each and adds a box for impact measures. A team session takes 2 to 3 hours, and the page advises reviewing the canvas over time.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 15.2C193
Business Sustainability Planning and Resource Mobilization Toolkit and Training Curriculum
A toolkit and training curriculum from Pact for local NGOs and civil society groups. It helps organisations plan for financial sustainability, choose a business model suited to their own funding context and mobilise resources beyond donor grants. Capacity builders use the curriculum to run workshops. Organisations use the tools to draft their own sustainability plans. It is free under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 licence.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 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 - 6.2C076
Do-It-Yourself Sabbatical Guide for Nonprofits, with Sample Policies
A practical guide for nonprofit executive directors who want to plan a sabbatical without a funded programme. It sets out a timeline from 6 to 12 months before departure through the time away, the return to work and life after sabbatical. It also reproduces staff sabbatical policies from 6 organisations, including Peace Over Violence, CPAF, SAJE and GEO, which boards and HR leads can adapt.
Start hereClassicTool or templateFree - 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 - 2.2C024
How to Develop Your Intended Impact and Theory of Change
A free toolkit that helps a nonprofit leadership team define its intended impact and theory of change. Intended impact names who the organisation serves, where and what outcomes it commits to over 5 to 10 years. Theory of change sets out how its approaches and partners get there. Each leader drafts both, the team merges the drafts, then pressure-tests the result with research and stakeholder conversations. It sits with an article using YW Boston as a case study.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 1.5C218
Designing and Filling New Positions
A free Bridgespan toolkit for nonprofits that need new or changed roles to deliver a new strategy or growth plan. It sets out five steps: define what the strategy requires, find the capability gaps, design new and modified positions, assess internal candidates and fill the roles. It includes a position profile template, a skills assessment spreadsheet and a case study of a youth nonprofit that added a deputy director and an expansion manager as it grew.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 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 - 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 - 11.1C143
Workbook on Security: Practical Steps for Human Rights Defenders at Risk
A workbook that guides human rights defenders through writing a security plan for themselves and, where relevant, their organisation. Its 6 chapters cover introduction, assessing risk, analysing threats, wellbeing, creating security plans and context. 17 appendices give practical material on topics such as SWOT analysis, office and home security, detention and arrest, travel, computer and phone security, and surveillance. Defenders work through it alone or in groups.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 2.1C020
The Strategy Habit
A playbook of 12 monthly exercises, called recipes, that make strategy a regular team habit. Each recipe poses a strategic question and gives a practical exercise for a team session, on topics such as setting a big hairy audacious goal, turning constraints into opportunities and business model change. The playbook gives guidance for running monthly discussions with a wide group of staff and building a strategy that keeps up with events.
EmergingTool or templateFreeNonprofit Builder tool
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