A free library of the tools we build — policy templates, forms, checklists, requirement crosswalks, review rubrics, and implementation guides — published with plain instructions for adapting them to your organization. No registration wall on the download. No consultation required. No catch.
We publish here for two reasons. Most organizations in this sector will never be able to buy an engagement, and the knowledge developed inside paid work should not stay there. And a tool used badly is worse than no tool, so each item comes with guidance on what it assumes, what you must change before using it, and when you should not use it at all.
What is here: governance and conflict-of-interest instruments; finance and cost-allocation tools; workforce and onboarding templates; compliance crosswalks and evidence maps; quality and outcomes rubrics; risk, continuity, and underwriting checklists; practice briefs and sector research.
If you adapt something and it works, tell us. If it did not, tell us that instead — it is how the library gets better.
A complete annual declaration cycle: the policy, four role-specific declaration forms (director, officer, staff, contractor), the reviewer workflow, a roster reconciliation sheet, and the standing board report.
It assumes: A board that meets at least quarterly and a named person who can own the cycle.
Before you use it: The reviewer role, your fiscal year dates, and any state-specific requirements your counsel identifies.
A minutes structure that captures disclosure, recusal, the vote counted without the interested person, and the factual basis for each finding — not merely that a motion passed.
It assumes: Nothing. It works for any board.
Before you use it: Your officer titles and quorum rules.
Charters for finance, governance, and quality committees, each with purpose, membership, authority, meeting cadence, and annual work plan.
It assumes: Committees named in your bylaws.
Before you use it: Committee names and any authority reserved to the full board.
A structure for tracing every licensing, accreditation, contract, and funder requirement to the specific document that demonstrates it, and to the person who owns producing it.
It assumes: You can list your obligations. If you cannot, start with the guide below.
Before you use it: Everything in the requirement column — this is a frame, not a filled-in answer.
The binder as a maintained register: twelve sections with an owner, a refresh cadence, a last-refreshed date and a completeness state — plus the auditor's request list mapped to sections, where a request that maps nowhere is the finding.
It assumes: An annual independent audit.
Before you use it: Sections that do not apply, and anything your auditor asks for that is not listed.
A method for closing findings that fixes the system that produced them, and the log that runs it: the instance fix, the three whys, the system fix, and the later check that the fix held.
It assumes: You receive findings. Most regulated organizations do.
Before you use it: Your escalation path and who signs off on closure.
A written methodology with allocation bases, the documentation trail that supports each base, and the worksheet that produces the rates.
It assumes: Federal or state pass-through funding, or a funder that asks how indirect costs are allocated.
Before you use it: Your cost pools, your bases, and everything your auditor tells you to change.
A decision-support pack rather than an accounting printout, with every variance, total and ratio computed — and a count of variances beyond your threshold that carry no explanation.
It assumes: A bookkeeper or accountant who can produce the underlying statements.
Before you use it: Your chart of accounts mapping and the indicators your board actually uses.
Per-award compliance requirements, reporting calendar, budget-to-actual tracking, drawdown workflow, and a closeout checklist.
It assumes: More than one restricted funding source.
Before you use it: Award types and any funder-specific reporting your inventory must carry.
Four instruments and a board dashboard: contribution margin by program, operating reserve adequacy, cash runway in weeks, and revenue concentration — plus the three scenarios to run against them and the thresholds that turn a result into a decision.
It assumes: Last year's audited figures and a current budget. You do not need a finance department.
Before you use it: Every number. The structure is the deliverable; the figures shown are invented illustrations.
A five-layer cost build producing your real cost per unit of service, the gap against the rate you are paid, the annual consequence, and the evidence file to put in front of a contracting officer.
It assumes: You are paid a set rate per unit — per placement day, per hour, per case month — by a government or institutional payer.
Before you use it: The unit, the layers that apply to your model, and every figure. The illustrations use invented round numbers.
The sequence that prevents access before required clearances and pre-service training are on file, with the gate enforced by a status cell that will not read MAY OPEN until every required item is evidenced.
It assumes: A regulated environment with pre-service requirements.
Before you use it: Your specific clearance and training requirements, which vary by license type and role.
Same-day closeout of systems, devices, keys, records and final pay — as a record: one line per system with the date, the time, and who closed and verified it. It computes the systems with no closure recorded.
It assumes: A systems inventory. If you do not have one, start with the inventory below.
Before you use it: Your system list and who holds administrative rights for each.
Three kinds of succession kept separate, a key-person map that goes wider than the executive director, the single-point-of-knowledge audit, an emergency acting appointment with stated limits, and a ninety-day interim protocol.
It assumes: A board that can meet on short notice. You do not need a large staff — the smaller the organization, the more concentrated the dependency.
Before you use it: Names, authorities, and notice periods. The licensed-role section must be checked against your license before it is adopted.
The three working documents that turn "supervision happens" into supervision that can be evidenced: a session record with the standing agenda, a documentation-review rubric scored per record, a monthly case-sampling schedule, and an action log that carries between sessions.
It assumes: Case-carrying staff supervised on a regular cadence, with documented casework.
Before you use it: The cadence, sample sizes, and rubric criteria marked [adjust] — each must match your licensing standards and contracts.
Every application: what it does, what data it holds, what it costs, who administers it, contract term, and renewal date.
It assumes: Nothing. This is usually the first thing to build.
Before you use it: Nothing structural — fill it in.
Who is called and in what order, what gets preserved, and the notification register your counsel completes — plus the event log used live and the tabletop record.
It assumes: You hold confidential records. Every organization in this sector does.
Before you use it: Your notification obligations, which depend on what data you hold and in which state.
Fifty items across ten domains, scored on a five-level scale that measures evidence rather than intention — with a harm classification that decides the order of repair, a remediation queue, and a one-page board report.
It assumes: You hold confidential records about people. You do not need an IT department, a security officer, or a budget to complete it.
Before you use it: The retention periods, the notification obligations, and any domain that does not apply to how you operate. Those depend on what you hold and where — confirm them with your own counsel.
Twelve indicator rows where every column is a field of the definition, so filling a row is defining the indicator — with the reporting calendar and the record of definition changes that keeps two years of data comparable.
It assumes: You are asked for outcomes and currently report activity.
Before you use it: The indicators themselves. The structure transfers; the content does not.
What a complete submission contains, assembled: every section with present, current-as-of and a named owner; a renewal calendar computed back from your expiry date; and the loss-mitigation narrative as one row per claim.
It assumes: A liability renewal, and a broker who will use what you prepare.
Before you use it: Lines of coverage and anything your broker asks for that is not listed.
A continuity plan built for organizations that cannot pause: essential functions with recovery times, succession three deep with the licensed-role column, the seventy-two hour grid, the five losses, and the tabletop record.
It assumes: You deliver a service that continues whether or not your office, your systems, or your executive director are available.
Before you use it: Your functions, recovery times, succession order, and every name and number. It carries no statutory notification deadlines by design — those depend on what you hold and where you operate.
A pre-populated risk universe for human services, scoring defined in words rather than numbers, inherent and residual scored separately, the four treatment responses — and the board risk appetite statement that tells management what it may decide without asking.
It assumes: A board that meets at least quarterly. You do not need a risk officer, a committee, or software.
Before you use it: Which risks apply, every score, every owner, and the appetite thresholds — those are your board's to set and nobody else's.
Every function with a named owner — a person, not a department — including the functions nobody currently owns.
It assumes: Nothing. This is the cheapest high-value document most organizations do not have.
Before you use it: Function names, to match how your organization actually divides work.
Seven rungs of combination from shared purchasing to full merger, the questions that pick the rung, the asymmetric preparation each party needs, five decision gates, the twelve things that do not transfer without somebody else's written consent, a due-diligence register, and the first hundred days.
It assumes: A board willing to discuss the question out loud. Nothing else — the first three phases cost nothing and happen before you engage counsel.
Before you use it: Everything after the gate where counsel joins. Your lawyer and your auditor complete the legal and tax structure; this kit gets you to them prepared and stops where their work begins.
A program design worked in the order that catches errors: the chain from inputs to impact with the assumption under each link, objectives written so they can fail, a capacity check run before launch, a measurement plan built at design time, and the standard that would mean the program should change or stop.
It assumes: A program you are designing, redesigning, or about to describe in a proposal. You do not need an evaluator, a data analyst, or a research budget.
Before you use it: Every statement. The structure is the deliverable; the illustrations are invented and are marked for deletion.
Fund development as a capability rather than a writing task: the case components written once and adapted per funder, an evidence register where every claim carries its source, a go / no-go standard applied before writing begins, the attachment set kept current, and the handoff that puts delivery staff in the room before submission.
It assumes: You seek grant or contract funding. You do not need a development director — the smaller the shop, the more of this is currently in one person's head.
Before you use it: Every component text and every claim. The architecture transfers; your case does not come from anyone else.