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March 11, 2021Borya Shakhnovich says E-Signature Tools Help Nonprofits Streamline
Borya Shakhnovich says E-Signature Tools Help Nonprofits Streamline is an article by the CEO of airSlate. Here’s what Borya has to share:
Nonprofits have always been faced with striking a balance – despite wanting to focus all of their time and attention on serving their causes, many have been forced to spend a significant amount of time, money and resources on paperwork and managing documents. The pandemic has posed an additional challenge for nonprofits as they learn how to navigate communication, fundraising, and paperwork from afar.
But increasingly, nonprofits are looking to implement new document workflow solutions with tools for automating some of these manual, time-consuming tasks – including the signing process, collection of data, and management of documents across the organization.
We spoke with several nonprofits – from a community action agency specializing in poverty programs, to a women’s health clinic – that have each implemented some of these new digitized methods and e-signature solutions to more effectively run their businesses. Whether lowering administrative costs by going paperless, streamlining business processes to focus on impact, or delighting their volunteers and donors with ease of use, these nonprofits have seen significant benefits that will last long after COVID-19 is gone.
Going Paperless
Brightpoint is a community action agency located in Northeast Indiana specializing in poverty programs – including helping preschool children prepare for kindergarten and high-school students gain skills for jobs, assisting with housing for homeless veterans, health insurance guidance, and more.
When faced with the global pandemic last year, Brightpoint immediately knew they needed to digitize their paperwork – not only to avoid in-person contact due to COVID-19 concerns, but to continue serving vulnerable families, even from afar. Not only was it expensive to print, copy, and send documents, but it was difficult to track the signature process and document completion status, and slow turnaround times and an inefficient signing process didn’t make that any easier. What’s more, alternative solutions were costly and lacked the usage flexibility that Brightpoint needed.
The answer for Brightpoint was to transition the business to virtual services and electronic signature solutions. In doing so, the business was able to easily track and quickly collect signatures digitally without putting anyone’s health at risk. Families were offered a user-friendly tool to open, sign and send back documents – even those families who didn’t have access to or use much technology, were able to easily navigate the documents. Brightpoint also saw significant cost and time savings by leveraging the bulk send feature to send parent consent forms to 300 families at once.
“Before signNow, we spent a lot of money on printing, sending, and making copies of signed documents,” said Tammy Pifer, Brightpoint Early Head Start Program Director. “With the money we’ve saved, we’ll be able to continue using signNow, even when in-person meetings and visitations are possible again. We’ve been wanting to go paperless, and Covid forced our hand on that. There’s no going back now that we’ve digitized with signNow.”
Streamlining Fundraising
Fundraising is critical to nonprofit success, but can be a manual, time-consuming and paper-heavy process. That was the case for one women’s health clinic business in Michigan. It was a daunting and days-long process for the head of donor relations to have to create, print, and mail forms to donors individually – not to mention the subsequent, individual follow up required on incomplete forms.
When planning for its annual fundraising event, the clinic decided to implement an e-signature solution to make it as easy as possible for donors and stakeholders to give. By using solutions like signNow, the clinic was able to streamline and automate the process for completing pledge and registration forms so that donors and stakeholders could sign and send their completed forms – even from their mobile device. They were also able to create and use reusable templates, brand forms, and bulk send them for signatures, saving both time and hassle.
Going paperless has allowed them to save not only on time, but also lower administrative costs with a more efficient and seamless process. Instead of spending time on paperwork, the head of donor relations could spend more time on building relationships with the donors.
Optimizing Policy Updates
For global nonprofits, it can be especially challenging to connect with all stakeholders in an effective and efficient way. That was the challenge that faced a nonprofit organization that specializes in selling handmade jewelry by global artisans who have been rescued from poverty and human trafficking. After an update to the organization’s policies, they wanted to be able to reach out to every stakeholder to share the updates – but with artisans and partners located around the world, the organization’s update process was increasingly slow and hard to track. They needed a solution that would offer an economical and global reach for their artisans.
In implementing an e-signature solution, the organization was able to streamline business processes to focus more on impact and less on their paperwork. For example, many of the artisans don’t have access to computers or cell phones. But, with e-signature solutions, the nonprofit directors around the world have been able to collect signatures and go over paperwork, when needed. The solution has saved the organization valuable time, money and resources that would have been spent sending out and collecting signatures.
The Future for Nonprofits is Digital
Solutions like signNow are critical for nonprofits to consider to digitize their operations and speed up document workflow – whether it’s the signature process, collection of data, or management of documents. In doing so, nonprofits will be able to optimize their impact and focus more time and energy on doing what they do best – changing the world.
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About Borya Shakhnovich, CEO and Co-Founder, airSlate
Borya has 20 years experience developing and applying algorithms and models to drive business results and academic insights. Prior to joining airSlate, he founded Orwick, an online community for scientific research. He also was a professor of Bioinformatics at Boston University and a fellow in Systems Biology at Harvard University. He has published many research papers, including ones on the evolution of genetic structures, which he adapted to create airSlate’s exceptional growth model. Borya received a BS in Computational Biophysics from University of Illinois, a PhD in Bioinformatics from Boston University.
Borya Shakhnovich says E-Signature Tools Help Nonprofits Streamline was first posted at INSIDE CHARITY
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