Volunteer Waivers, Compliance and Clearances

Two screens, two questions: what does a volunteer agree to before they serve, and who has not agreed to it yet.

When you’d use this

• Your insurer asks for the liability release volunteers sign.
• A new program needs different wording from the general one.
• You are about to let volunteers work with children and need to know who is cleared.
• An auditor asks for the list of volunteers who served without a signed waiver.

Write the waiver

1. Go to Nonprofit > Volunteering > Waivers.
2. Click New template.
3. Fill in:
   • Template name: what you will call it internally, for example “General Liability Waiver”.
   • Disclosure body: the wording the volunteer reads and agrees to.
   • Version: bump this whenever the wording changes, so you can tell which version each signature was against.
   • Waiver document (optional): upload the PDF if your counsel wrote one. Upload document attaches it; Replace swaps it later.
4. Click Create.

Each template shows its version as a chip, so v2 on a row tells you at a glance which wording is current.

Pick the default

The Tenant default selector at the top of the page decides which waiver an event asks for when it does not name one itself. Set it once and most events need no further thought. Choose **, No default · ** if you would rather every event name its own.

The default shows Active when it points at a live template. If it shows Broken pointer, the template it names has been archived; pick a different default.

Attach a waiver to one event

The Event Templates tab on the same screen is where a specific event gets a specific waiver, overriding the tenant default. Use it for the one program whose wording genuinely differs.

Change or retire a template

Edit changes the wording. Bump the Version when you do, so signatures stay attributable to the text people actually read.

Archive retires it, and Muin tells you exactly what that costs before you confirm: volunteers can no longer be asked to sign it, an event still pointing at it falls back to the tenant default, and anyone part-way through signing it is left with a waiver that no longer exists. Signatures already collected against it stay on record. If it is also your tenant default, the dialog says so.

See who is not compliant

Nonprofit > Volunteering > Waiver Compliance has two cards.

Waivers lists volunteers against the events they signed up for, with the Waiver column reading either Signed or Missing. Tick Show only missing waivers to get just the gap.

Background-check clearance lists volunteers whose approved hours crossed a clearance threshold. There are two thresholds, monthly and annual, and they are independent: a volunteer serving three hours a month crosses the annual one without ever crossing the monthly one. The Triggered by column tells you which.

Clearance status reads:

Status	Meaning
On file	A current clearance is recorded
Expiring	It is valid now but due for renewal
Expired	It has lapsed
Awaiting result	Submitted, no result back yet
None on file	Nothing recorded

Two checkboxes narrow the card: Show only lapsing or missing background checks, and Show only volunteers still missing a clearance (on by default, because that is the list you act on). A row with a clearance gap is flagged red.

Each card has its own Download CSV for the auditor, the board or the insurer.

A note under the clearance card names the jurisdiction the thresholds come from. Confirm it is the right one for your state in volunteer settings; the thresholds are a rule pack, not a guess.

What it affects

• The tenant default is what every event asks for unless the event names its own waiver, so changing it changes what new sign-ups are asked to agree to.
• Archiving a template silently redirects every event pointing at it to the tenant default. If there is no default, those events ask for nothing.
• Approving volunteer hours is what pushes someone over a clearance threshold, so the clearance card changes as you work through Volunteering > Hours.
• Waiver status appears on the volunteer’s own What I signed page in the member portal, so a volunteer can answer “is my waiver current” without asking you.

When it goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
Broken pointer on the tenant default	The default names an archived template	Open the selector and choose a live template.
A volunteer is asked for no waiver at all	The event names no waiver and there is no tenant default	Set a Tenant default, or attach one on the Event Templates tab.
Could not download the waiver-compliance CSV	The export failed	Try again. Narrow the filters if the list is very large.
Could not download the clearance-compliance CSV	Same, for the clearance card	Try again.
Every volunteer past a threshold has a clearance on file	The filtered list is genuinely empty	Nothing to do. Untick the filter if you want to see everyone.
No volunteer has crossed a clearance threshold yet	Nobody has served enough hours	This is the expected state early on. It changes as hours are approved.
A clearance looks wrong for your state	The jurisdiction rule pack is not the one you need	Change it in volunteer settings; the note under the card names the pack currently in use.
An archived waiver still shows on an old signature	By design	Signatures keep the version they were made against. That is what makes them defensible.

Next step

Volunteers who spend their own money serving ask for it back themselves. See Volunteer expenses and payout preferences.