Everything you need to apply the Margins Audit in your organization, community, or practice — free, accessible, and designed for real use.
The Margins Audit Toolkit is free because the communities who need it most are often the least resourced to pay for it. That's not just an access value — it's a design principle. If a diagnostic tool for structural harm is only available to organizations that can afford a consultant, it reproduces the exact problem it's meant to solve.
The toolkit is designed for self-directed use — meaning you can pick it up and apply it without hiring anyone. If you want facilitated support, a DxD engagement brings Briana into the room with you. But the tool itself is yours.
Please credit Dignity by Design and Briana Ford when using or sharing the Margins Audit. This work has a name and a source. Attribution matters.
The Margins Audit Toolkit is structured as a set of modules you can use independently or as a complete facilitated sequence.
A plain-language introduction to the Margins Audit — the three questions, their logic, and how they work together as a structural diagnostic rather than a checklist.
Step-by-step instructions for leading a Margins Audit session with a team, board, or community group. Includes timing suggestions, facilitation prompts, and common sticking points.
Fillable worksheets for each of the three questions, a group synthesis template, and a documentation sheet for tracking what you found and what you decided to do about it.
Real examples of the Margins Audit in practice — from nonprofit strategic planning to personal decision-making — demonstrating how the framework works across sectors and scales.
Applied at the beginning of an organizational planning cycle to surface whose voices are missing and what structural barriers the plan might inadvertently reinforce or ignore.
Used by program teams to pressure-test a new initiative before launch — asking who it reaches, who it misses, and who was consulted in the design process.
Embedded in board meeting agendas when a significant decision is on the table — a hiring choice, a budget reallocation, a strategic pivot, a community partnership.
Applied by a friend who needed to evaluate a major life decision — and discovered the three questions work just as well outside of organizations as inside them. The Margins Audit is sector-agnostic. That's the point.
The Margins Audit is proprietary IP developed by Briana Ford through Dignity by Design.
When using, adapting, or sharing the toolkit, please credit:
"The Margins Audit, developed by Briana Ford / Dignity by Design (brianaford.com)"