Hibox

Hibox is software for nonprofits, and its LMS is the training and compliance part of that offer. The LMS page calls it "Designed specifically as an LMS for Nonprofits": a learning management system with a free nonprofit training catalog included, employee certification tracking, a course builder for an organization's own training, and free access for board members and volunteers. Hibox sells the LMS on its own or as the Learning Management module of a nine-module nonprofit suite that also covers programs, fundraising, grants, staff, volunteers, the board and projects. The company is Hibox LLC.

What the product is

The reader here is a nonprofit's executive director, HR lead or program manager who has to train paid staff, volunteers and board members and keep their certifications current, usually without a training department. Hibox builds the LMS around that situation. Paid staff count toward the plan's user limit, while volunteers and board members, in the page's words, "can access all training materials completely free of charge."

The home page lists the kinds of organizations it serves, from youth and family programs (which it calls its strongest fit) to human and social services, health and community clinics, education and literacy, housing, arts and culture, food banks, environment and animal welfare, faith-based groups, disability services, sports and recreation, and associations.

What you actually get

Assigning training. Courses can be assigned by department, by job type or individually, and learning paths assign specific courses in a specific order, which the page suggests for employee onboarding, certification or professional development. On the home page, the training section shows required training set by role, with completion tracked for each requirement.

Certification and compliance. The LMS issues certificates on course completion and keeps employee compliance records "for board reporting, grant requirements, and regulatory standards." It tracks both internal trainings and third-party certifications, sends automatic certification renewal notifications and produces instant reports for the board or funders. Hibox says it can automate employee compliance tracking and reporting.

The nonprofit catalog. The page says more than 120 courses wait inside the LMS. Training areas include fundraising and development, grant management, program management, communications and marketing, leadership development, board governance, financial management, operations management and partnership development. Sample titles with their running times: Nonprofit Fundraising Fundamentals (42 minutes), Nonprofit Grant Writing Fundamentals (55 minutes), Managing Restricted & Unrestricted Funds (25 minutes) and Nonprofit Executive Leadership Fundamentals (72 minutes), each with a course quiz and a completion certificate. The home page also shows an Afterschool Training Library of 105 courses, with examples such as Mandated Reporter Basics (45 minutes), Positive Behavior Guidance (30 minutes), Volunteer Orientation (20 minutes) and Board Member Essentials (40 minutes). The Nonprofit Fundraising Fundamentals course is offered free on the LMS page.

Your own training. The course builder lets an organization create training that reflects its own mission and processes, and the page says it needs no technical expertise. For organizations that would rather hand this off, Hibox's content team can upload existing training, build courses from existing materials or create new staff and volunteer training, with the note that additional charges may apply.

Reporting. Tracking and reporting cover completion rates and employee certification progress, with detailed reports to show training effectiveness to stakeholders and funders.

Content for other LMSs. An organization that already runs an LMS can license Hibox's catalog instead. Hibox says it can add its entire catalog of nonprofit courses into any LMS, priced per user monthly, per user yearly or as a one-time lifetime license.

Pricing

The LMS page publishes its own pricing:

• Starter, $39 a month, best for small nonprofits: up to 5 staff users, unlimited volunteers and board members, the full training catalog, creating your own training, assigning and tracking training, reports and analytics, and 5GB of file storage.
• Pro, $99 a month, best for midsize nonprofits: everything in Starter plus up to 15 staff users, certification compliance tracking, free training imports and 25GB of storage.
• Enterprise, talk to sales, for large nonprofits: unlimited staff users, premium support, file storage up to 1 TB and 3 hours of onboarding training.

The LMS is also part of the All in One Bundle on the home page, which includes all nine modules: $299 a month for 1 to 5 users, $599 a month for 6 to 15 users, and $599 a month plus $29 per user over 15 for larger teams, with annual billing saving 16% on Starter and 17% on Pro and Enterprise. Individual modules start at $29 a month. Pricing is based on staff team size, never on how many people an organization serves, and volunteer and board accounts never count as users. The home page adds "No credit card required to start. Cancel anytime."

Setup, integrations and security

Hibox says most organizations are up and running in 2 to 10 business days, and that its staff help with setup and train the team at no additional cost, including moving people and records from spreadsheets or old systems. Booking starts with a 30-minute demo.

Because the LMS shares one record per person with the rest of the suite, training status feeds other modules: staff with expired certifications are flagged before they are placed on a shift. Hibox works on phones, tablets and computers, and the suite connects to or exports for Stripe, ADP RUN, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks, Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Support is offered through a support chat.

On data protection, the FAQ says Hibox "supports HIPAA and FERPA compliance, encrypts data at rest and in transit, and uses field level permissions so sensitive information like case notes is only visible to people with permission", and that a Business Associate Agreement is available. Backup and disaster recovery are listed too.

Who it suits

Hibox's LMS fits small and midsize nonprofits that rely on volunteers and boards and need to show funders and regulators that training happened, such as an afterschool program that tracks mandated reporter training or a clinic keeping certifications current. The free volunteer and board seats and the low entry price on the LMS-only plans keep costs tied to paid staff. Organizations that later want program, grant or volunteer management can add the other modules on the same records.

The catalog is written for nonprofit work, so a business looking for general corporate training is not the audience, and the plan limits (5 and 15 staff users before Enterprise) are set for nonprofit-sized teams.