Many nonprofit organizations that have been around for a while do not have a formal record filing system for their important IRS and organization documents.  This is especially true for smaller nonprofits that have frequent board of directorship turnover and basically operate out of someone’s house as a formal “office”!  There are certain “permanent file” type documents that should be maintained by all nonprofit organizations, large or small.  In fact, these records are required to be made available to the IRS or to the general public if requested.  So as a due diligence reminder, next time you go to a board meeting for a nonprofit organization, ask if anyone has seen the following records:

  1. Articles of Incorporation
  2. Bylaws
  3. Employer Identification number
  4. South Dakota Sales tax number (if applicable), or sales tax exemption letter if applicable
  5. IRS tax exemption letter
  6. IRS Form 1023 or 1024 “application for tax exemption”
  7. Conflict of Interest Policy for Board Members/officers

If some or all of these are missing, you could contact prior representatives from your organization to see if they can locate them.  If not, please contact us and we can guide you on how to proceed.