A charitable organization should establish and implement policies and procedures to protect and preserve the organization’s important documents and business records.
CORE CONCEPTS
-The boards should clearly note and realize the clear difference between document destruction during an investigation vs. document purging as a normal day to day management duty.
-It is important to have a schedule for document retention as a necessary tool to guarantee the retention of documents needed for any legal or business purposes.
-The board should know how an official investigation is determined and how to be sure that the organization follows the laws.
-An organized and efficient filing system is important for all organizations.
LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE ISSUES
-In Sarbaines—Oxyley Act of 2004 in Section 802 for the document and destruction clause applies to nonprofit organizations.
-It is illegal to destroy any documents if the organization is expecting to be investigating or is under a current official investigation.
-The IRS Form 990 inquires if an organization has a document retention and destruction policy.