Can a board of directors sign a unanimous written consent electronically?

In most states, yes. Many state nonprofit corporation acts allow the board to act by unanimous written consent and accept electronic signatures or electronic transmissions for it. Check your bylaws and your state statute first, then send the consent to every director in parallel and file the sealed PDF with the minutes.

Can a volunteer waiver be signed electronically?

Yes. A volunteer release or waiver signed online is valid under ESIGN and UETA, and the audit certificate records who signed, from which IP address and when. For a volunteer under 18, have a parent or guardian sign as a second signer. Whether a waiver holds up in a dispute depends on its wording and your state law, not on the signing method.

Is there a nonprofit discount on SignElectronically?

We do not run a separate nonprofit price list. Instead every plan includes seats, so a nonprofit with ten staff who send pays one Plus price rather than ten user licenses. Yearly billing roughly halves the monthly price. Volunteers, donors, grantors and board members who only sign never need a paid seat or an account.

What is the best e-signature software for a small nonprofit?

The one your whole team can use without buying a license per person, that handles signing order for grant agreements, sends reminders to volunteers on its own and keeps an audit trail your auditor accepts. A team of up to three senders fits Starter, and up to ten fits Plus with bulk send for annual volunteer renewals.

Do volunteers need an account to sign?

No. Each volunteer receives a personal link by email, opens the form on a phone or a computer, fills the fields and signs. There is nothing to install and no account to create. If you want an extra identity check, ask for a one time code by email, or by text message on Plus and above.

Electronic Signature for Nonprofits and Nonprofit eSignature Software

SignElectronically is eSignature software for nonprofits that send volunteer agreements, grant contracts, MOUs and board consents. Every plan includes seats for your staff, signers never pay, and each finished document comes back as a sealed PDF with an audit certificate your auditor can read.

Try the editor on a sample agreement now. Staff seats are part of every plan, and volunteers, donors and directors sign at no charge. See pricing

The paperwork problem

Why signatures slow a small nonprofit down

A food bank with 300 regular volunteers needs a signed release from each of them, a fresh one every year, and a guardian signature for every teenager on the Saturday shift. A youth program needs consent forms before the first session. A grant cannot be drawn down until the executive director and the board treasurer have both signed the agreement the funder sent.

On paper this runs through a clipboard at the front desk, a scanner nobody likes, and a filing cabinet that the auditor eventually asks about. Forms go missing, the wrong person signs, and the program manager spends Friday afternoon chasing two board members who are travelling.

Electronic signature turns each of those forms into a link. People sign from a phone in a couple of minutes, reminders go out without anyone writing them, and you can see in one list which volunteer, director or partner still owes a signature.

What you get

Built for the forms a nonprofit sends every month

Seats for the whole staff

Starter includes 3 seats, Plus 10 and Pro 25. Program staff, the development team and the office manager each send under their own name.

Bulk send to the volunteer roster

Upload a CSV of volunteers and every one gets a personal release to sign. Columns such as program or shift fill fields in each form. On Plus and above.

Signing order for grants and MOUs

The partner organization signs first, then your executive director, then the board treasurer. CC the grants manager so the signed copy lands in the grant file.

Templates the team reuses

Save the volunteer release, the media consent and the vendor agreement once with roles and fields. Anyone on the team sends them in a minute.

Reminders and expiry dates

Pick an interval and a deadline. Reminders stop when the person signs, and an expiry date closes forms nobody should sign after the event.

An audit trail for your auditor

Every completed document carries a certificate with UTC timestamps, IP addresses and document hashes, and the sealed PDF shows any later edit.

Grant agreements

Get a grant agreement signed by everyone who has to sign it

Subaward agreement, after school literacy program

In progress

RP

1. Riverside Partners, program lead
Signed

[email protected] · 2026-10-02 15:41 UTC
AM

2. Alex Moreno, executive director
Viewed

[email protected] · 2026-10-03 08:12 UTC
KT

3. Kim Tran, board treasurer
Signs last

[email protected] · waiting

Reminder every 2 days, expires in 14 days

1

Upload the agreement PDF

Use the agreement the funder or partner sent you, or open your own template. Place signature, date and title fields for each party.
2

Add the signers in order

Partner organization first, your executive director second, the board treasurer last. Add the grants manager and the funder contact as CC.
3

Set reminders and a deadline

Reminders every two days until the agreement is signed, and an expiry date before the grant start date.
4

Watch the timeline

You see who has opened the agreement and who has signed, without emailing anyone to ask.
5

File the sealed PDF

Everyone receives the signed agreement and its audit certificate. Download it into the grant folder for reporting and the annual audit.

Board and governance

Board consents without waiting for the next meeting

Boards meet four to six times a year, but decisions do not wait. Opening a new bank account, approving a lease, accepting a restricted gift or signing a loan often needs a resolution between meetings. Most state nonprofit corporation acts let the board act by unanimous written consent, and many accept electronic signatures for it. Check your bylaws for the exact rule.

Send the written consent to every director in parallel. Each one signs from wherever they are, the audit certificate records the time of each signature, and the secretary files the sealed PDF with the minutes. Conflict of interest disclosures and annual board member agreements work the same way, and a template saves the secretary from rebuilding them every year.

When the treasurer presents the year end numbers to the same board, a tool that can generate board-ready financial statements from your bookkeeping export saves another week of spreadsheet work.

Nonprofit executive director and board treasurer reviewing a grant agreement at a small office table

Scope

Which nonprofit documents to send here

Nonprofit documents and how to sign them electronically
Document	Who signs	How we set it up
Volunteer release and waiver	Volunteer, plus parent or guardian for minors	Template, bulk send to the roster each year
Volunteer agreement and code of conduct	Volunteer, then volunteer coordinator	Sequential order, CC to program manager
Media and photo consent	Participant or guardian	Template with a checkbox per use
Grant agreements and subawards	Partner, executive director, board treasurer	Sequential order with an expiry date
Memorandum of understanding	Both organizations	Parallel signing, then countersign
Board unanimous written consent	Every director	Parallel signing, sealed PDF for the minutes
Offer letters and contractor agreements	New hire or contractor, then HR	Template with salary and start date fields
Donation with card payment	Donor	Use your donor CRM or payment page; we do not collect payments

General information for the United States, not legal advice. Confirm waiver wording and board consent rules with your counsel and your bylaws.

The legal background is in our ESIGN Act and UETA guide, and the evidence each document carries is explained on the electronic signature audit trail page. For offer letters to new staff, see how teams handle HR onboarding with e-signatures.

Cost

What a nonprofit pays for electronic signature

Many signing tools charge per user, so a nonprofit pays again for every program manager, development officer and coordinator who sends a form. Our plans include seats. Starter covers 3 senders for $24 a month on yearly billing. Plus covers 10 senders, bulk send from a CSV and SMS codes for $74 a month on yearly billing. Pro adds 25 seats, SSO and retention rules.

One envelope is one sending, however many people sign it, so a grant agreement with three signers counts once. Volunteers, donors and directors never need a seat. If your organization is moving off a per user tool, the DocuSign alternative page walks through the same arithmetic for a team of ten.

Seats for the whole staff, not per user
Volunteers and board members sign free on any device
Monthly or yearly billing, cancel at the end of the period
Sealed PDFs downloadable as a ZIP for the audit

Monthly cost for 10 staff who send

Per user tool at $25 per user $250/mo

10 users on a typical per user team plan

SignElectronically Plus, 10 seats $74/mo

Billed yearly, bulk send included

Public list prices, annual billing, checked 2026-10-10.

Questions

Electronic signature for nonprofits FAQ

Yes. In the United States the federal ESIGN Act and the state versions of UETA give an electronic signature the same legal effect as ink for volunteer agreements, grant contracts, MOUs, board consents and vendor contracts, as long as the signer intends to sign, agrees to sign electronically and you keep the record. A few documents, such as wills and some court papers, are excluded.

More for nonprofit teams

Bulk send A personal release for every volunteer from one CSV. Templates Waivers and consents the whole team reuses. Legal validity When an electronic signature is legally binding. Pricing Plans with staff seats included.

Get every volunteer form and grant agreement signed this month

Create an account for your organization, save your volunteer release as a template and send it to the whole roster.

See pricing