Founders Hub

Explore practical answers to common social entrepreneur challenges

CategoriesFormats

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Building & Managing Teams

How to build a performance management system

Case Studies

• From pushback to progress: Kitovu’s journey to better performance

Quick Reads

• A short guide to effective goal setting
• Performance reviews: what to do before and after the meeting

Tools

• Build your performance management system: a starter tool
• Performance improvement roadmap
• Foundations of talent development

Videos

• Get started and empower your team
• What are some ways to address underperformance?
• How can you effectively upskill your team members?
• What are some low cost approaches to train the team?

How to find and assess values-aligned team members

Quick Reads

• Design an evaluation process for hiring

Tools

• Talent planning worksheet
• Interview and scorecard template
• Job offer letter builder

Team Discussions

• Discuss hiring decisions with your team

Videos

• Getting your earliest hires right
• How can social enterprises find good candidates
• Hiring based on values and mission alignment
• What are some low-cost incentives to attract talent?
• Onboard effectively in the first 90 days
• Build a mission-aligned team from the start

Business Strategy

How to build a business plan for strategic success

Case Studies

• Transforming a scaling business model through customer insights
• Rebuilding the value chain to better serve stakeholders

Quick Reads

• Know your business model
• Social enterprise business plan cheat sheet

Tools

• Test the assumptions in your business model
• Operationalizing your business plan

Videos

• Using your business plan as a live document
• Integrating impact into your business plan

How to choose a mission-aligned revenue model for your nonprofit

Case Studies

• From grants to growth
• Stories that pay for themselves
• Beyond money: How shifting from donations to enterprise led to deeper impact

Quick Reads

• 9 ways nonprofits can earn income
• Calculate if your earned income idea will actually make money

Tools

• Transform your core competencies into mission-aligned revenue

Team Discussions

• Discuss revenue generation decisions with your team

Videos

• What are the pros and cons of starting revenue generation as a nonprofit?
• How do you get your team on board with a new revenue idea?
• What turns a new idea into a good one?
• Is your idea mission-aligned, or does it risk diluting your mission?

How to establish and effectively manage strategic partnerships

Case Studies

• 5 examples of strategic partnerships from Acumen's community
• Solar light enterprise expands energy access through strategic partnerships

Quick Reads

• Tips for establishing successful partnerships

Tools

• Assess potential partners

Team Discussions

• Align on strategic partnerships with your team

Videos

• Key questions to ask before entering a new partnership
• Partnering for success: what to look for
• Key lessons on entering partnerships
• Entering corporate partnerships as a nonprofit: insights from City UK
• Partner with humility and audacity

How to partner with the government

Case Studies

• Getting a seat at the policymaking table
• Scaling with the system
• Bridging Pakistan’s justice gap through public-private partnership

Tools

• Assess potential partners

Team Discussions

• A team guide to working with government

Videos

• Are you ready to partner with the government?
• What does it take to win government buy-in?
• How to build trust with the government?
• What should founders know before partnering with the government in India?
• How do you work with governments when politicians keep changing?

How to prepare for successful scaling and growth

Case Studies

• Lessons from scaling too fast

Quick Reads

• The sweet spot for scale: impact, value, and sustainability
• The Four As of good scale
• Four-step quality management guide

Tools

• Scale readiness checklist
• Pathways to scale your impact

Team Discussions

• Make scaling decisions with your team

Videos

• Readiness to scale: an impact investor's view
• Good scale v/s bad scale
• S4S Technologies: empowering farmers and scaling impact
• Kokari Coconuts’ journey towards global scaling

Financial management

How to get started with financial modeling and forecasting

Case Studies

• From avoiding the numbers to owning them

Quick Reads

• Part 2, Financial modeling: Expenses
• Measuring what matters: A guide to performance KPIs for social entrepreneurs

Tools

• Part 1, Financial modeling: Unit economics
• Part 3, Financial modeling: Forecasting

Team Discussions

• Align as a team on what the numbers mean and what to do next

Videos

• Why do founders need to build financial models?
• Why do inflated financial models backfire with investors?
• What modeling mistakes should founders avoid?
• What factors can shift your financial projections?
• How do you build credible projections when you have limited traction?

Fundraising

How to build a sustainable fundraising plan for a nonprofit

Case Studies

• Persevering through rejection to secure funding: Caren Wakoli’s story

Quick Reads

• Sources of funding for nonprofits

Videos

• Raising funds for a nonprofit: strategies from Kheyti
• Tips for building relationships that foster repeat donations
• Strategies to showcase impact to funders

How to craft a pitch

Case Studies

• A social enterprise adapts fundraising strategies to attract diverse capital

Quick Reads

• Tell the story of your organization

Tools

• Storyboard your pitch deck
• Pitch deck evaluation tool
• Practice your pitch

Videos

• Elements of a successful pitch: an investor’s perspective
• Pitch tips from entrepreneurs who’ve raised impact investment
• Adapt your pitch

How to decide next steps after an investor pitch

Quick Reads

• Ways to enhance partner engagement

Tools

• After pitch review

Videos

• Investment chronicles: MOWO’s journey
• Securing a follow-up from a pitch
• Evolving your pitch from feedback and rejections

How to get ready to raise capital

Case Studies

• What it takes to find the right investors: two stories of success

Quick Reads

• Calculate your social enterprise’s valuation with confidence
• Funding options for social enterprises: finding your best fit
• 5 Tips for effective networking at events

Tools

• Numbers to know before fundraising
• Due diligence data rooms: Why investors need them and what to include
• Pre-fundraising online checklist
• Assessing funder alignment

Team Discussions

• Assess investment readiness and investor fit with the team

Videos

• Finding mission-aligned investors
• Are you ready to reach out: an impact investor's view
• Tactics to attract relevant investors
• Fundraising pitfalls to avoid
• Investment chronicles: Kisangas' journey

How to prepare for a first meeting with an investor

Quick Reads

• Prepare to meet a potential investor
• Post-pitch Q&A: 30 key questions to be ready for

Videos

• Preparing for challenging investor questions
• Investor meeting prep: essential tips
• Projecting confidence in donor meetings: essential tips
• Navigating investor meetings as a woman founder

Governance

How to build and strengthen your board

Quick Reads

• Board essentials: building strong governance
• A five-step guide to finding and onboarding the right board members
• Board meeting guide: before, during, and after
• Unlock the power of your board through strong relationships

Tools

• Board skills identification matrix

Team Discussions

• Make board decisions with your team

Videos

• What made you want to assemble a board of directors?
• How to build a balanced board?
• What is an independent board member?
• What does a healthy relationship between a board and CEO look like?

Impact Measurement

How to define your impact and start measuring it

Case Studies

• Data that delivers: using data to power change for smallholder farmers

Quick Reads

• 6 ways to measure the impact of your solution
• Part 2, Master the impact canvas tool

Tools

• Theory of change: a step-by-step guide
• Choose your first impact metrics
• Part 1, Impact data collection canvas template

Team Discussions

• Define your impact with your team

Videos

• Why should social entrepreneurs track impact from early on?
• How do I decide what data will be useful?
• What do entrepreneurs get wrong about impact measurement?
• What are some learnings you had when you started to measure impact?
• What makes impact investable?

Leadership

How to navigate stakeholder tensions and build alignment

Tools

• Part 1, Reframe stakeholder challenges to get “unstuck”
• Part 2, Stakeholder mapping for alignment and influence
• Managing competing values in stakeholder decisions

Team Discussions

• Work through stakeholder tensions with your team

Videos

• How do I decide which stakeholders to focus on?
• How do you turn stakeholder feedback into real decisions?
• How to build alignment with your stakeholders?
• How can you prepare for tough stakeholder conversations?
• How can you handle misalignment with stakeholders?

Marketing & Sales

How to approach pricing for a new product or service

Case Studies

• A pricing approach to expand energy access in rural Colombia
• Clean energy enterprise makes refrigeration affordable for small businesses

Quick Reads

• A four-step approach to pricing
• Innovative pricing models that increase affordability

Team Discussions

• Discuss pricing decisions with your team

Videos

• Determining pricing: tips from social entrepreneurs
• Position yourself in the market with competition-based pricing

How to identify the value proposition of your solution

Case Studies

• Agri-tech enterprise turns customer insights into a value proposition

Tools

• Define your value proposition

Team Discussions

• Clarify your value proposition with your team

Videos

• Defining value proposition: insights from entrepreneurs
• Value proposition in action: insights from Agnes Health
• Listening to customers to uncover your value proposition

How to reach and engage the right customers

Case Studies

• Solar energy enterprise turns skeptics into believers
• Growing a brand with grassroots marketing and local engagement

Quick Reads

• Identify the right marketing channels

Tools

• The 4 Ts of marketing
• Customer funnel: guide customers through their decision making process

Team Discussions

• Discuss marketing decisions with your team

Videos

• Foundations of effective sales and marketing
• Build acceptance and trust in underserved communities