The Records Retention and Document Destruction Policy identifies the record retention responsibilities of staff, volunteers, and members of the board of directors, for maintaining and documenting the storage and destruction of the American Humanist Association’s documents and records.

The American Humanist Association takes seriously its obligations to preserve information relating to donor privacy, litigation, audits and investigations. Records are stored in a safe and secure manner. Documents and financial files that are essential to the operation of the American Humanist Association in an emergency will be duplicated or backed up regularly and maintained off-site or securely on the cloud.

From time to time, the Executive Director or President may issue a notice, known as a “legal hold,” suspending the destruction of records due to pending, threatened, or otherwise reasonably foreseeable litigation, audits, government investigations, or similar proceedings. No records specified in any legal hold may be destroyed, even if the scheduled destruction date has passed, until the legal hold is withdrawn by the Executive Director or President as appropriate, depending on who issued the hold.

File Category	Item	Retention Period
Corporate Records	Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation	Permanent
	Corporate resolutions	Permanent
	Board and committee meeting agendas and minutes	Permanent
	Conflict-of-interest disclosure forms	4 years
Finance and Administration	Audited financial statements and auditor management letters	7 years
	Payroll records, check register and checks, bank deposits and statements	7 years
	General ledgers and journals (includes bank reconciliations	7 years
	Investment performance reports	7 years
	Equipment files and maintenance records	7 years or after disposition
	Contracts and agreements	7 years after all obligations end
Insurance Records	Policies — occurrence and claim types	Permanent
	Policies — claimed-made type	Permanent
	Accident reports, safety (OSHA) reports, and claims	7 years
	Group disability records	7 years after end of benefits
Real Estate	Deeds	Permanent
	Leases (expired), mortgages, security agreements	7 years after all obligations end
Tax	IRS exemption determination and related correspondence	Permanent
	IRS Form 990	Permanent
	Charitable Organizations Registration Statements	7 years
Human Resources	Employee personnel files	Permanent
	Retirement plan benefits (plan descriptions, plan documents	Permanent
	Employee handbooks, employee orientation and training materials	Permanent
	Workers comp claims (after settlement)	7 years
	IRS Form I-9 (store separate from personnel file)	Greater of 1 year after end of service, or three years
	Withholding tax statements	7 years
	Timesheets	3 years
Technology	Software licenses and support agreements	7 years after all obligations end

Document Destruction

The Executive Director is responsible for the ongoing process of identifying its records, which have met the required retention period, and overseeing their destruction. Destruction of financial and personnel-related documents will be accomplished by shredding.

Electronic Documents

Electronic documents will be retained as if they were paper documents. Therefore, any electronic files that fall into one of the document types on the above schedule will be maintained for the appropriate amount of time. Backup and recovery methods will be tested on a regular basis.

Compliance

Failure on the part of employees to follow this policy can result in possible civil and criminal sanctions against the Organization and its employees and possible disciplinary action against responsible individuals. The President will periodically review these procedures with legal counsel or the organization’s certified public accountant to ensure that they are in compliance with new or revised regulations.