Shifting grant agreement process to electronic signatures, Collaborator and integrity

TramKieu

Our foundation recently adapted our grant agreement process to verify and submit signatures electronically as we all shift to working remotely. We require 2 signatures: one from a board officer and the second from the CEO. We are utilizing the Collaborator function to invite board members to complete this action item. We made sure to include easy and clear instructions across all our communications and the usual technical verbiage for authorizing e-signatures.

It was going well until we noticed that one grantee breached this trust and entered in a board member’s e-signature. With the Collaborator function you are able to see the time stamp and the person who filled out the field. I am writing to see if your foundation has ever experienced this type of integrity breach, how did you address it and did you find a solution?

LisaBoxWilliams

Yikes. If the board member is not technology savvy then maybe they had the CEO sign it for them. It could be harmless. Have you asked the board officer about their knowledge of the grant agreement? It seems like a reasonable person would understand the possible appearance of the action as being nefarious.

TramKieu

Thanks @LisaBoxWilliams! We ended up adding more direct language in the follow up forms so that people weren't bypassing protocols. We also ended up creating a FAQ sheet with step by step directions which also really helped with troubleshooting errors.