Does your nonprofit use any form of electronic consent -- such as click-through agreements or digital signatures? What did you use it for, and what was your experience? How did it compare with traditional approaches? Are there any tools (or tips) you'd like to share with other nonprofits?
If you're new to electronic agreements, check out TechSoup's article
Reduce Paper Hassles with Electronic Consent. Still have questions? Share them here.
usually i use these with online terms of use for online services. The org typically works out the language with a pro-bono lawyer. In 10+ org sites using these methods over last 10 years, I've never seen any legal issue arise as a result, and a small number of legal issues prevented by org staff referring to the terms. None of these texts had elements I had problems with -- that would allow the nonprofit to sell their email address for example.
I think it's true most users don't read the legalese before signing up, but putting users through a detailed, multiple page approval doc is where getting this authorization becomes excessive in my view. Letting people see there's a agreement their making it, reviewing thoroughly as an option is usually adequate.
Boing Boing had an item on the newly launched
Small Print Project, which "looks to catalog all the 'agreements' we find ourselves "consenting to" when we open a box, install a program, sign up for a service or visit a Web site."