The Age of Digital Signing in Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs)
Posted on 26 April, 2021 at 15:26
By Linda Calisto
The
Covid19 pandemic has moved the world an inch. Digitization can no longer be
underestimated. Embracing technology cannot be ignored either. The new world demands
corporates, and all institutions including the Nonprofit sector to tilt towards
investing in modern technology. More so, the Covid19 pandemic has seen most
people in the NPO sector facing the possibility of weeks or months under
lockdown and
most have adopted the work from home approach and some having their programs
affected negatively. This has seen a change of way in the operations of the Non
Profit Sector as most organizational meetings have shifted to taking place
online so as to try and cope with the situation. This initiative has created a
great room for employees to work from remote locations. However, technology has
also strengthened another face which is Digital Signing.
Digital
Signing is when a signer electronically signs a document, the signature is
created using the signer’s private key.
Digital signatures did not only increase the efficiency of the organization but
also cut on time wasted in preparing and distributing manual paperwork for
signing. Digital signatures have been with us for a long time, but
organizations seemed to not make greater use of them. Due to the pandemic most
organizations have now embraced the use of these signatures especially in the
NPO sector so as to expedite processes. Technology has assisted in turning the
existing paper forms into digitally signable ones which employees can then send
to the respective parties. If for example the Executives who are responsible
for budget approval are working from home the project can still go on as the
budget can be shared through email with the relevant authorities for approval
by signing online. They can use Adobe Acrobat Software which enables them to
sign a pdf document and this can save a lot of time. Signing a pdf document has
quite a number of options, one can type, draw or insert an image of his or her
written signature. When you save the document the signature and text become
part of the pdf.
Working remotely can be of great advantage to the employees, due to the flexibility of being able to work from home but looking at the NPO sector, most employees cannot carry out their work as they used to. Working in the Nonprofit sector requires much of working physically from the office as the roles are interlinked and there is a wide use of approvals in the form of signatures by the respective authorities It is of paramount importance that organizations in the NPO sector rely on the use of technology for them to be able to continue their operation and to realize their objectives without any hindrances or delays.
Online
signing allows one to collect signatures from the respective authorities from
anywhere and at any time, for example if the Finance Director is the one
responsible for signing the expenditure report that will be needed by the donor
for them to disburse funds, the report can be shared with him via email and he
can sign and send back without any physical contact involved in the process. Online
signing does not deter Non Profit Organizations from complying with the organization’s
and the donor’s regulations. There is also improved governance by storing and
managing all the signed reports and relevant documents from a centralized
location.
Above all the digital signatures are also economically
friendly as they help the organization save on stationery, electricity and
fuel, thus lowering the administrative costs. As such it will allow NPOs to
reallocate budget from pushing paper to pushing for change. Therefore, NPOs can
invest more in their nonprofit’s mission-critical programs.