E-signatures for nonprofits

What does a nonprofit need signed?

Governance creates a steady trickle: trustee or board resolutions, conflict of interest declarations each year, and minutes approved between meetings. Funders send grant agreements with reporting conditions that the chair or chief executive must sign, sometimes with a second signatory.

Programmes produce the rest. Volunteers sign an agreement and, for physical activities such as a sponsored hike or a community build, a liability waiver. Partner organisations sign a memorandum of understanding. Donors making a large gift may sign a gift agreement setting out how the money will be used.

• Board or trustee resolutions
• Grant agreements
• Volunteer agreements and waivers
• Memorandum of understanding with partners
• Photo consent for campaign material

Why signing is awkward for a charity

Trustees are volunteers with day jobs, spread across a region or several countries. A resolution that needs four trustee signatures can take a month by post. Many charities' constitutions also require two signatories on contracts above a set value, which means a second person to chase.

Budget is the other constraint. Software priced per user for a sales team is hard to justify from unrestricted funds, especially for an organisation that signs a few documents a month but needs every one recorded properly.

How a nonprofit gets a trustee resolution signed

The steps below suit a written resolution; a grant agreement works the same way with fewer signers.

• Upload the resolution. Sign PDF places a signature and date box beside each trustee's name.
• Send to all trustees at once. On the Full plan, switch on reminders so nobody has to chase by email.
• For contracts that need two signatories, type 'chair signs, then treasurer' to set the order (signing order is part of Full).
• For a volunteer event, send each volunteer their own waiver, with a checkbox to confirm they have read the risk notes.
• File each sealed PDF. The certificate shows when each trustee signed, which helps at audit time.

What a nonprofit pays

A small charity signing a grant agreement and an occasional resolution can stay on Light at $5 a month for 2 documents. One resolution signed by eight trustees counts as one document.

Organisations running volunteer programmes, where each volunteer signs their own agreement or waiver, will want Full at $10 a month for unlimited documents. Both plans are monthly, so you can switch to Full for the month of a big event and back afterwards.

What nonprofits should check first

We do not collect donations, run sign-up forms for events, or connect to donor management systems. For a fun run with 400 entrants, a registration tool with a waiver step will save far more time than sending 400 waivers one by one, since we have no bulk send.

Some legal documents, such as declarations of trust executed as deeds or documents that must be witnessed, may need a wet signature or witness. Check your constitution and take advice. This is not legal advice.