Waivers and Signatures

One of the most important challenges for the Site Manager is making sure a volunteer is ready to tackle the needs/opportunities they are signing up for, from driving a van to packaging food for families. Your organization may also welcome young volunteers who are learning to be civic-minded.


Volunteer managers are responsible for the operational integrity of a need/opportunity and must consider risk from liability for their organization and the volunteer. Risk is mitigated when a volunteer signs a carefully drafted waiver. Both minors and adults must be qualified for a need. In many cases, the minor is trained or chaperoned by the adult.


NOTE: A Site Manager protects their nonprofit from accidents by ensuring the volunteer signs a waiver. They can set up Qualification with certain permission levels to ensure a waiver is signed.


Read more about Qualification Permissions.


In this example, we are assembling food and household supplies for families in our community. We will see examples from two different volunteers:

  • An adult volunteer who needs to carefully package the food and supplies with help from minor volunteers and other adults.

  • A minor volunteer who wants to help assemble the food packages.


To participate in this need/opportunity, qualified volunteers must sign an Adult Waiver of Liability or Minor Waiver of Liability (on behalf of an accompanying minor).


Read more on Waiver Basics and eSign.


Signing an Adult Waiver

Site Managers can require adult volunteers to sign a waiver of liability before participating in a need/opportunity. Here is how a volunteer responds to a need/opportunity with a required waiver attached: 


1. Click on a need/opportunity and click RESPOND.


2. If the need/opportunity requires a waiver to be signed, the Submit Qualifications screen will appear:


3. In some cases, the When’s your birthday? screen may appear.


NOTE: This screen will only appear if the volunteer does not have their date of birth (DOB) attached to their profile. The DOB is used to determine if the volunteer is 18 years old or older. If they are older than 18, the user is presented with the Adult Liability Waiver. If the user is younger than 18, they are presented with the Minor Liability Waiver.


4. Once the DOB is entered, click SUBMIT BIRTHDAY. The eSign Confirmation window will appear. Click CONTINUE.


5. To sign the waiver electronically, click in the blank fields and enter your name and date.

6. Click COMPLETE SIGNING. If the Site Manager must approve the Waiver Qualification, Pending Status will be assigned to the user’s Qualification. If the Waiver Qualification is set to Auto Approve, the user will see Qualified in the STATUS column.



NOTE: At this point, if the Waiver is not auto-approved, the volunteer has to wait until the site manager approves the waiver signature. The volunteer may contact the Site Manager to inform them that the Waiver is ready for approval.


Signing a Waiver as a Minor

Users over the age of 13 can participate in needs/opportunities. The minor can set up a User Profile and view needs/opportunities. But Site Managers may require a parent or guardian to co-sign a liability waiver on behalf of the minors before they can respond to the need/opportunity. To sign the Waiver as a minor: 


1. Locate a need/opportunity. Click RESPOND.



2. If the need/opportunity requires a Waiver Qualification signature, the Submit Qualifications screen will appear: 


3. Select the waiver beside the Click to sign option. Sign the waiver electronically.


4. The When’s your birthday? screen will appear if the user’s date of birth is not provided in their profile.


 

5. If the user is under 18, they will be prompted to provide Parent or Guardian Information. The Parent or Guardian must fill out the required fields and select SUBMIT INFORMATION.


6. The user can then view and sign the Minor Waiver of Liability. 


7. Click COMPLETE SIGNING. When prompted with the Are you sure? pop-up, select YES.

8. After the minor signs the Waiver, an automated email is sent to the Parent or Guardian with the subject line “The Please Sign This Waiver For <Name>.” The email contains a link for the Parent or Guardian to access the Waiver they need to sign. Click the link:


9. The eSign Confirmation window will appear. Click CONTINUE.


10. Click on the link and follow the Waiver screen prompts to eSign and date the waiver. Click COMPLETE SIGNING.


11. The Are you sure? screen will appear. Click YES.




12. After the Parent or Guardian eSigns the Waiver, an automated email is sent to the Minor’s inbox.