Article1:Irch.com
Document Retention Policies for Non Profits Document retention policy is actually another name given for a management policy of documents. It is very impractical to consider that a nonprofit is going to keep all the documents that it generates. It is reasonable to take care of your desk and carry out regular cleaning by tossing the papers here and there but if any document that can be needed later is deleted, it becomes a big problem. Trouble also arises when the document that is deleted becomes a subject under any legal investigation. By taking the written document retention policy, you can make sure that the employees are following proper guidance regarding the discard of any document and the destruction practices of the documents becomes a consistent business practice of the non-profit. Practicing the records retention policy can be quite an overwhelming job to start with, but you must consider it a work that simply records the type of document that should be retained by any non-profit for a particular amount of time. The records retention schedule has a policy that specifies that any nonprofit must adhere to a regular practice of destroying the documents as per the schedule that will be referred in the policy or it has to be adopted by the nonprofit time and again. Records retention and disposition schedule are among those good and governed rules that are highlighted by IRS on the IRS form 990 and it asks if the filing nonprofit has started adapting the record retention policy. The records retention policy recognizes the duties to be followed by employees, board members as well as outsiders so as to maintain and keep the storage and destruction of the documents and records. What needs to be retained and what should be destroyed? There have been no rules or guidelines created that decide the document retention which covers all the non-profits. Any document retention policy template is not provided as each of the nonprofits are required to know and learn their own set of rules and law that retains only those records which are relevant to the actions of that nonprofit. The law differs as per the state but the nonprofits differ too in the way the types of documents that they create. On the other hand, it is likely to recognize those documents that should be saved by any charitable nonprofit always, which should be important enough that they are never meant to discard. Also, there are documents that are considered very important for a considerable amount of time; hence they must be saved accordingly by most of the nonprofits. There are some of the records that must be kept permanent including: • • • • • • •
Articles of Incorporation Audit reports from self-governing audits Corporate resolutions Checks from different organizations Determination Letter from the IRS, and correspondence relating to it Financial statements (year-end) that are created annually Insurance policies