Document Retention and Destruction Policy

Matt Brooks | Approved on: Nov 13, 2024

Purpose: 

This Document Retention and Destruction Policy is designed to ensure that Esperanto-USA properly maintains important records and documents in compliance with legal requirements and to promote the timely destruction of obsolete records.

Policy:

1. Retention Periods:
   1. Financial Records (e.g., budgets, financial statements, tax returns): Retain for at least 7 years.
   2. Governance Documents (e.g., board minutes, by-laws, policies): Retain permanently.
   3. Contracts and Legal Agreements: Retain for at least 7 years after the contract expires.
   4. Employee and Payroll Records: Retain for at least 7 years after termination.
   5. Donor Records: Retain for at least 7 years. 
   6. Restricted donation and bequest instructions/conditions: Retained for at least the lifetime of the endowment or term of the instructions/conditions. May be retained longer for historical reasons.
   7. Correspondence (emails, letters): Casual correspondences not related to official business and email notifications from systems, can be retained (or deleted/destroyed) at the will of the recipient. Correspondences containing an official decision or discussion about the above categories should be retained per their guidelines.
      1. Example of items that can be deleted: emails discussing a project that don’t contain a financial approval or decision; emails of a personal nature; emails from Google Docs summarizing document changes so long as the document itself is retained per the above guidelines.
2. Electronic Records:
   1. Electronic documents, including emails, should be retained and destroyed in accordance with this policy.
3. Document Destruction:
   1. Documents should be destroyed after the expiration of the relevant retention period. Paper documents will be shredded, and electronic documents will be permanently deleted.
4. Litigation Holds:
   1. In the event of litigation or governmental investigation, all relevant documents must be retained and may not be destroyed until the matter is resolved.
5. Compliance:
   1. Failure to comply with this policy may result in disciplinary action. The Board of Directors will review compliance annually.