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Questions about Hineni, answered plainly.
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Hineni in one sentence
Hineni is volunteer management software for synagogues, churches and community organizations. Members find volunteer work from a QR code or link with no app or account, and every sign-up goes to a named lay leader who owns the follow-up. Hineni was built by lay leaders at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton, Florida.
Understanding Hineni
What Hineni is, why it exists, who built it and who it serves.
Hineni is volunteer management software for congregations and community organizations. Members find volunteer work from a QR code or link on any phone, with no app or account, and every sign-up goes to a named lay leader who owns the follow-up. Hineni was built by lay leaders at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton, Florida.
Hineni (הִנֵּנִי) is Hebrew for "Here I am." It is the answer Abraham, Moses and Samuel each give when they are called, in Genesis 22:1, Exodus 3:4 and 1 Samuel 3:4. The product takes its name from that answer, because saying yes to serve is what every volunteer does when they raise a hand.
Source: Genesis 22:1; Exodus 3:4; 1 Samuel 3:4Read more on About
Hineni was built by Hayden Trepeck, Brotherhood President, and William Haas Evans, Hubbetzin, two lay leaders at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton. Temple Beth El is a Reform congregation of about 2,100 households. They and the innovation and technology experts working with them built it to remove the friction between people who want to help and the needs that go unmet. It is designed so lay leaders can carry the follow-up without adding work for staff.
Hineni closes the gap between a person saying yes and a person hearing back. Sign-up sheets, forms and group chats record who took a slot, and none of them assigns someone to follow up, so willing members drift away. Federal survey analysis found that more than one-third of Americans who volunteered in 2006 did not volunteer the following year.
Source: Eisner, Grimm, Maynard and Washburn, The New Volunteer Workforce, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2009
Hineni serves synagogues and churches, and organizations that need screened volunteers, including youth sports leagues, summer camps, and senior and ride programs. Federations and congregational networks use its network views, because one agreement can reach many member organizations.
An organization requests a demo through the Hineni website. The team walks through Hineni with the organization's own volunteer roles and provides a quote. The organization then loads its roles, names the lay leader who owns each area and creates QR codes or links for its programs.
Hineni combines four things in one flow: members see real work before giving any details, they describe what they enjoy in their own words, families book together under each role's age rules, and every sign-up has a named owner who follows up. In a review of about 60 congregation, volunteer, marketplace and corporate platforms in November 2026, no single product documented all four together.
Source: Hineni competitive landscape review, November 1, 2026Read more on Compare overview
Signing up and taking part
What a member or volunteer sees and does, from first look to changing their mind.
No. Volunteers scan a QR code or open a link in any phone browser. Members never create a password, and their contact details are asked for only when they choose to sign up for something. Leaders and staff sign in with a link sent to their email.
Yes. Hineni shows real opportunities first, each with its date, place, family rules, any screening it needs and what happens after a person says yes. Nothing is asked of the person until they choose a role or ask for help finding one.
Hineni reads what a person writes in their own words and suggests roles from the organization's own list. Each suggestion comes with a short reason it fits, such as a time of week or a skill the person named. The person sees what Hineni understood and can correct it, and nothing is booked until they choose.
The sign-up goes to the lay leader who owns that area, and the member sees that leader's name. The leader reaches out to welcome them and answer questions. Hineni does not promise a reply time, because each congregation sets its own expectations for its volunteers.
Yes. A volunteer can change their interests, cancel a booking or withdraw from a role, and the leader who owns that role is told. A personal page called My Hineni lists each volunteer's sign-ups, invitations and history in one place.
Hineni keeps offers of expertise apart from sign-ups for existing roles. An offer such as help with marketing or legal work goes to a leader who can design new work around it. That keeps a generous offer from being squeezed into the wrong role.
Hineni contacts volunteers by email first. Text messages go only to people who opt in for a specific purpose, such as reminders and schedule changes, and replying STOP ends them. Each person chooses their channel and how often they hear from the organization.
Hineni is designed so one person can take part in several organizations with a single identity. Consent, contact preferences and any screening status stay separate for each organization. Sharing a screening status with a second organization requires the volunteer's opt-in.
Families, teens and children
Booking for a household, age rules, guardians and children as riders.
Yes. One adult can save places for named household members in a single booking. Each role's age and supervision rules apply as they choose, so the booking shows who can come before it is confirmed.
Each role or session can set a minimum age, whether a child must come with an adult, and the age at which a child counts toward capacity. Hineni shows these rules on the opportunity before anyone signs up and applies them during family booking.
Each organization decides which roles teens may join on their own and at what age. Hineni enforces the rule the organization sets, and a parent can still book a teen as part of the household.
Hineni collects guardian consent through an emailed link sent to the parent or guardian. A coordinator can record an exception only with a stated reason, and every exception is logged.
Each organization decides with its insurer whether children may ride with volunteer drivers. Where it allows them, Hineni matches child riders only with drivers cleared for both driving and work with children.
Follow-up and lay leadership
How lay leaders and coordinators answer every sign-up and what they can see.
Each lay leader works from a list of the requests they own. Every request shows the person's own words, a status and a next step, and the leader logs each call, email or text. Attempts to reach someone are recorded separately from their replies, so nobody mistakes a message sent for a conversation held.
No. Hineni tells a volunteer who will respond and leaves the timing to the leader and the congregation. Follow-up steps carry an owner and an outcome, without countdown clocks.
A lay leader sees only the people and roles in their own area. Their searches, exports and messages stay inside that area. They see a child's details only for sessions that child is booked into.
No. Hineni is designed so lay leaders can carry the follow-up without staff. Staff can see an overview and export everything to Excel when they need it.
Yes. A leader can invite a person or a small group to a role, and each invitation waits for the volunteer to accept. Only the volunteer's own yes turns an invitation into a booking, and the leader sees each acceptance as it arrives.
Leaders can search only among members who chose to be findable. Hineni records skills at three levels: expertise, practical skill and willingness to learn. A member who opts out never appears in a skill search.
A circle is a small group organized around a topic, concern or cause, and it can own volunteer work. Work offered only to circle members publishes directly. Work offered to the whole congregation waits for staff review before it appears.
Screening, clearance and rides
Background checks, Florida Level 2 screening, driver checks and rides to services.
Hineni guides volunteers through checks run by screening vendors and the state, and it never stores the results. It keeps only a clearance status, the date and the expiry. The organization's designated screener receives the actual results.
Each organization attaches screening requirements to specific roles, usually roles with children or behind the wheel. Most roles, such as greeting, kitchen help and adult events, need none. Screening appears only when a volunteer chooses a role that requires it.
A Florida Level 2 check is a fingerprint-based search of state and national criminal history records. Prints are taken at a Live Scan site and checked by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI. Florida requires Level 2 screening for coaches and referees in youth athletic programs under section 943.0438 of the Florida Statutes.
Source: Fla. Stat. 943.0438; FDLE VECHSRead more on Florida Level 2 checks
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) clearinghouse lists fixed fees of $24 for the state check, $12 for the FBI check and $24 to retain prints for five years, $60 in all. The Live Scan site adds its own fee. Fees were current as of the clearinghouse FAQ updated in April 2025 and should be confirmed before budgeting.
Source: AHCA Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse FAQ, April 2025Read more on Florida Level 2 checks
Florida's Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse can let an organization review a person screened in the last five years whose prints are retained, without new fingerprints. Whether an organization can use that review depends on its eligibility under Florida law. Hineni checks for reuse before sending anyone for new fingerprints, wherever the law allows it.
Source: AHCA Clearinghouse FAQ; Fla. Stat. 435.12Read more on Florida Level 2 checks
Driver clearance covers a valid license, a motor vehicle record review and proof of insurance that meets the organization's minimums. Florida requires only $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage liability on a personal car, so a legal driver may carry no bodily injury coverage. Each organization should set its own minimums with its insurer, and Hineni checks coverage against them.
Source: Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) insurance requirementsRead more on Driver checks
A rider, a family member or staff can request a ride, and a ride coordinator proposes a match with a volunteer driver. The pickup address reaches the driver only after both the driver and the rider say yes. Only cleared drivers can be matched.
The volunteer keeps their place, marked Pending clearance, while the check runs. The organization can offer them roles with no child contact and no driving in the meantime. Scheduling for the gated role unlocks when they clear.
Hineni handles an adverse result privately. The person receives notice, a copy of the report and the right to challenge it, and a named human contact. The outcome is never shown to group leaders or other volunteers. Organizations using consumer reports must follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act's disclosure and adverse-action steps.
Source: FTC, Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to KnowRead more on Safeguarding overview
Each organization chooses whether it pays, the volunteer pays or the cost is split. Hineni shows the cost and who pays before a volunteer starts, and passes government and vendor fees through at cost.
Hineni keeps an evidence record for each person and check: when consent was given, which vendor ran the check and when, the decision and who made it, any notices sent, and the expiry. The record contains no criminal history and exports as a dated report. Florida youth sports leagues must keep screening records for at least five years.
Source: Fla. Stat. 943.0438Read more on Safeguarding overview
Every clearance carries an expiry date. Hineni sends reminders to the volunteer and the coordinator before expiry, and it flags future sessions with children when a clearance lapses.
Privacy, security, accessibility and AI
Who sees what, what Hineni stores, consent, accessibility and the use of AI.
Access follows least privilege. A volunteer sees their own record and their household's. A lay leader sees only people tied to their work. Staff see the organization's records, and a screening officer sees clearance cases. Every export is logged.
No. Hineni never stores criminal history. It keeps a clearance status, the date, the expiry and the evidence of each step, and the results themselves stay with the screening vendor and the organization's designated screener.
Text consent is a separate, unchecked choice for a stated purpose, recorded for each organization with the date and the wording shown. Replying STOP or a similar word ends texts at once, with one confirmation. Hineni sends texts only after the sending number is registered with US carriers under 10DLC rules.
Source: CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, 2023; FCC TCPA revocation rule, 2025Read more on Trust and privacy
Hineni enforces each role's permissions in the database itself, so a leader's searches and exports return only their own records. It runs on a managed cloud database with sign-in by emailed link, and it never stores criminal history. Every export is logged with who downloaded it and when.
Hineni is designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA, with large tap targets, sign-in by emailed link and no retyping of information already given. The same design standard applies to every screen that members, lay leaders and staff use, and it is written with older adults in mind.
Source: W3C, WCAG 2.2Read more on Accessibility
Hineni's role suggestions come from rules that read a person's own words, and they do not use a generative AI model. Each suggestion shows a short reason it fits. People see what Hineni understood and can correct it before anything is saved or booked.
Each organization's records are kept separate from every other organization's, and staff can export them to Excel at any time. Each organization sets how long it keeps its volunteer records, within any legal duty it has.
A volunteer can ask the organization to delete their record. Each organization sets how long it keeps volunteer records, within any legal duty it has, such as the five-year screening records Florida youth leagues must keep.
Setup, integrations and reporting
Getting started, membership systems, exports, reports and calendars.
An organization loads its list of volunteer roles, names the lay leader who owns each area and creates a QR code or link for each program, table or flyer. Each role carries its own details, such as timing, family rules and any screening it requires. Temple Beth El's setup covers 65 roles across seven areas.
Hineni works alongside ShulCloud and imports members and households from a ShulCloud export file, because ShulCloud documents no public API. ShulCloud stays the system of record for membership, billing and the directory.
Read more on ShulCloud
Hineni does not connect directly to Planning Center or Salesforce. It runs beside them, and staff can export Hineni's volunteer records to Excel for use in either system.
Read more on Compare overview
Yes. Staff can export volunteer interests, requests and follow-up records to an Excel workbook in one step. Every export is logged with who downloaded it and when.
Hineni reports how many people scanned a code, how many completed a sign-up, which roles and groups drew the most interest and which skills members offered. Counts are of distinct people, and each number opens to the records behind it.
Yes. Each table or program gets its own QR code, so Hineni records where each person's interest began and routes it to that area's leader. The same codes work afterward in a bulletin, on the website or in a new-member welcome.
Quiet hours and Shabbat or holiday sending are organization settings. Clergy decide the policy, and Hineni delays messages until the allowed time.
Hineni sends tracked calendar invitations for each session, so a change of time or a cancellation updates the volunteer's calendar. A plain message states every change in words as well, because some calendar apps miss updates.
Source: RFC 5545 and RFC 5546 (iCalendar)Read more on How it works
Pricing, availability and support
Cost, how to try Hineni and who supports it.
Hineni is priced per organization. Pricing depends on the organization's size and the screening it needs, and a demo includes a quote. Government and vendor screening fees pass through at cost, and volunteers never pay to find roles or sign up.
Request a demo through the Hineni website. The team walks through Hineni with your own volunteer roles and provides a quote for your organization.
No. Volunteers never pay to find roles or sign up. The only cost a volunteer might see is a screening fee for a role that requires a check, and only if their organization asks volunteers to pay it.
Organizations work directly with the team that built Hineni for setup and questions. Volunteers get help from the lay leader named on their sign-up.
Comparisons and alternatives
How Hineni relates to tools organizations already use.
SignUpGenius makes slot-based sign-up sheets, free to start, with paid plans from $107.89 to $539.89 a year as of November 2026, and participants need no account. Hineni keeps one record per person across every role, suggests roles from the person's own words, books families under age rules and gives every sign-up an owner who follows up.
Source: SignUpGenius printable pricing, accessed November 1, 2026Read more on SignUpGenius
Planning Center is church management software sold as separate products for people, groups, registrations, check-in and services, and it offers background checks through Checkr and Protect My Ministry. Hineni concentrates on volunteer intake, matching and owned follow-up, and it can run beside a membership system a congregation already uses.
Source: planningcenter.com, accessed November 1, 2026Read more on Planning Center
ShulCloud is synagogue management software for membership, billing, events and donations, and no volunteer module was found in its public documentation. Hineni works alongside it: ShulCloud keeps households and billing, and Hineni handles volunteer intake, matching and follow-up.
Source: shulware.com and ShulCloud help center, accessed October 30, 2026Read more on ShulCloud
Get Connected runs volunteer hubs that many agencies share, often for a United Way or volunteer center, and Better Impact acquired its maker, Galaxy Digital, in March 2026. Hineni starts inside one congregation, with household booking under age rules and a named owner for every sign-up.
Source: NonProfit PRO, March 11, 2026Read more on Compare overview
Spreadsheets, forms and group chats cost nothing and members already know them, and they record names without assigning anyone to follow up. Hineni gives every yes an owner, a status and a next step, and a WhatsApp message or bulletin can still link straight into it.
Read more on Compare overview
Hineni works alongside a membership system. It handles volunteering and leaves dues, billing, giving and the member directory to the system the organization already uses.
Read more on Compare overview
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Last reviewed 3 November 2026 by the Hineni team.
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