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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10 resources found
- Search: program review
- 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 - 15.3C198
The Matrix Map
An article setting out a 4-step method for judging programmes and fundraising activities on both mission impact and profitability. Teams list every business line, score impact on a 1 to 4 scale, work out whether each line makes a surplus or needs a subsidy, then plot the results on a grid. The 4 quadrants, Stars, Hearts, Money Trees and Stop Signs, guide what to grow, contain, nurture or close.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 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 - 7.1C086
A Practical Guide to Nonprofit Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning
A guide for nonprofits of any size on setting up measurement, evaluation and learning with limited resources. It works through 3 steps: define outcomes and metrics from your theory of change, measure them without overloading staff and clients, and learn and improve through a dashboard and regular data reviews. It also covers when a formal evaluation is worth the cost and how to start without a data team.
EmergingKey manual or guideFree - 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 - 6.2C078
Trust, Rest, and Joy
A short article from the Spring 2024 issue of SSIR, in a supplement sponsored by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project. Leaders from the Durfee and Satterberg foundations describe how they fund rest: Durfee's sabbaticals since 1997 and its Lark Awards for staff wellbeing, and Satterberg's support for a BIPOC executive director sabbatical and retreat programme. It discusses who gets to rest and why funders need to trust grantees on what restores them.
CurrentShort readFree with sign-up - 2.3C025
Power Analysis
A guide for development staff on why, when and how to do power analysis. It covers deciding to do an analysis, carrying it out, and a review of concepts and methods. Frameworks include political economy analysis, stakeholder influence mapping, Net-Map, power over, to, with and within, visible, hidden and invisible power, the Powercube, the Power Matrix, and closed, invited and claimed spaces. Teams use it when planning programmes and partnerships.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree - 2.5C204
Pathways to Social Impact
A 14-page working paper from Duke's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, later revised for Stanford Social Innovation Review as "Scaling Social Impact". It asks what you are spreading (a programme, an organisation or a set of principles) and how: dissemination, loose to tight affiliation, or branching. Each option is tested against five R's: readiness, receptivity, resources, risk and return. Leaders and funders use its questions to pick a scaling path, including the option to wait.
ClassicShort readFree - 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 - 10.2C136
Becoming locally led as an anti-racist practice
A guide from Bond, developed by The Social Investment Consultancy, for UK-based and other international NGOs that want to become locally led. It gives a baseline view of what locally led development looks like and tools to review how each department works, from HR and finance to programmes, communications and trustees. Staff at any level use it to start internal conversations, plan organisational change and discuss funding models with donors.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree
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