E-signature for nonprofits: volunteers, boards and grants

A nonprofit runs on signatures it cannot easily chase. Volunteers turn up on Saturdays, board members meet once a month, and the person who used to keep the filing cabinet moved interstate two years ago. E-signature fits that world well, because it moves the signing to wherever people already are and leaves a record that does not depend on anyone’s cupboard. This is general information, not legal advice.

Volunteer agreements and policies

Volunteers are not employees, but most organisations still need them to agree to a role, a code of conduct and the policies that keep people safe. Volunteering Australia’s National Standards for Volunteer Involvement set out eight best practice standards, including that volunteer roles are meaningful and tailored, that volunteers are supported and developed, and that volunteer safety and wellbeing is protected. Written role descriptions and acknowledged policies are part of showing those standards in practice.

The embedded policy acknowledgement signing example shows the pattern for a policy. An employee acknowledges an information security policy through a two page summary that names version 3.1 on its acknowledgement page, with three required statement boxes: that the summary was read, that incidents will be reported within thirty minutes, and that the consequences are understood. The signing page refuses to finish while any box is empty. The example also walks through running the same acknowledgement across a team of forty, which is the realistic case for a volunteer workforce: one request per person, each producing its own certified record naming the version.

For loans of equipment to volunteers, such as laptops, radios or first aid kits, the equipment loan agreement signing example gives each device an empty serial number box for the borrower to fill from the sticker and has the coordinator countersign once the details match.

Board and committee documents

Boards sign less often but with higher stakes. Two kinds of document come up regularly.

Conflict of interest declarations. The ACNC’s Governance Standard 5 requires registered charities to take reasonable steps to ensure their Responsible People, such as board members, meet certain duties, and those duties include disclosing conflicts of interest and acting with reasonable care and diligence. An annual declaration signed by each board member is a straightforward way to record that. Send one request per member, so each declaration stands alone.

Time these requests with the calendar in mind. Every request expires 30 days after it is created, and the expiry cannot be extended, so sending declarations the week before an annual general meeting leaves no room for the member who is travelling. Send them a month ahead, title each one with the member’s name and the year, and use the status filter on the request list to see which declarations are still awaiting a signature before the meeting papers go out.

Written resolutions. Many constitutions and rules of association allow a board to pass a resolution in writing without meeting. Where yours does, one request with every member as a signer and signing order switched off lets each sign independently, and the certificate of completion records each signature’s time. Whether members need to sign in sequence or can sign in parallel is explained in sequential versus parallel signing. Check your rules before relying on this; they, not the signing tool, decide what counts as a valid resolution.

Grant agreements

Grant agreements are contracts, and funders often have their own execution rules: who must sign for the organisation, whether two officers are required, and whether the funder accepts electronic execution at all. Read the funder’s instructions before sending anything.

When electronic signing is accepted, the organisation’s authorised signatories can sign in order, and the funder can be added as a final signer if they sign the same document. Keep the funder’s name and the grant reference in the request title so the record is findable later. Clauses about how the funder may use the organisation’s name and logo are common in these agreements; the publicity clause page explains how they tend to work.

Consent: participants, parents and photographs

Programmes for young people, community health activities and fundraising campaigns all involve consent, and consent is where a clear record matters most.

The permission slip signing example shows a parent signing on a phone in the evening: required emergency contact fields, an optional medical note, a required consent box and a finger drawn signature, all typed into a panel above the read only page because the screen is narrow. For photographs of a minor, a separate request with both the young person and a parent or guardian as signers gives each of them their own record, and the permitted uses should be written into the document rather than left to a caption later.

The photo release signing example shows that arrangement in full. A dance studio’s release for a sixteen year old has three signers on one request: the model, her mother and the photographer. The photographer types the shoot date and the permitted uses, the studio website, an enrolment brochure and the studio’s social accounts, into fields that belong to him, so every other signature is given against a written scope. The mother types her relationship to the model into a required field. Signing order is off, so all three sign the same evening, and the certificate lists three signers, each with their own events. For a fundraising campaign that wants to use a participant’s story as well as their photograph, write the story’s uses into the same scope fields.

Records the ACNC expects

The ACNC says registered charities must keep written financial and operational records for seven years. It says the records can be kept in any format, including electronically, as long as they are easy to find, and must be in English or a form easily translated into English. Its governance standards also cover purposes and not for profit character, accountability to members, compliance with Australian laws and the suitability and duties of Responsible People, all of which are easier to show with signed documents than with recollections.

A completed request produces two files worth keeping together: the certified PDF, which any later edit invalidates, and the certificate of completion, which lists each signer’s identity check, signing time, IP address and consent. Store both in a shared location that survives changes of office bearers. The table below lists the documents a nonprofit commonly has signed, who signs and in what order.

Common mistakes

One request with every volunteer as a signer. It cannot complete until all sign, and one decline stops it.

Policies acknowledged without a version. Name the version inside the document so a later update is visibly a different record.

Relying on a signing tool to validate a resolution. Your rules decide whether written resolutions are allowed.

Filing records in a personal inbox. Office bearers change; records must stay findable for seven years.

Treating a volunteer like an employee in the paperwork. The documents differ even when the process is similar; the employment side is covered in e-signature for HR documents.

Build it

The multiple signers page shows how several people sign one document, each with their own coloured fields. A request holds up to 25 signers and 500 fields, a Sign in order switch invites signers together or in turn, and fields can be marked required so a statement cannot be skipped. Signers need no account. Each request expires 30 days after it is created, cannot be edited once sent, and on completion emails the certified PDF to every signer and the sender. The request list has a title search and status filters for tracking who has signed. The tutorial on sending a PDF for e-signature covers the steps in the editor.