Book X
The paperwork, printed in full.
Not a template pack. The working documents of three organizations, reproduced complete and annotated, so that you can study a finished example before drafting your own.
Why print them at all
A template tells you the shape. It does not tell you why.
Templates are easy to obtain. What a template cannot give you is the reasoning behind a particular clause, which provisions become important in the third year, and what the document looks like once a working board has been through it.
Each document is reproduced in full and then annotated: what a provision does, what its absence costs, and where the subject is treated at length.
Several would justify the book on their own. A mission statement shown in three successive drafts. A first-year budget that balances, which is less common in published examples than it ought to be. And a single board meeting recorded twice on facing pages, so the difference between adequate and inadequate minutes is visible at a glance.
The founding documents take an afternoon and govern for a decade. Nothing else you write will have that ratio. Book X · Nonprofit Bylaws, Budgets, and Policies
Not included
No government form, and no figure subject to change. Each document indicates which provisions to verify against your own state before use.
The contents
Every document, by name.
Grouped by chapter, with the organization each belongs to.
Chapter 1
The Documents That Make It Exist
Four documents, two of which you will file once and never read again, and one that governs more of your life than any statute.
- Articles of IncorporationSecond Chapter Reading
- Bylaws, AnnotatedSecond Chapter Reading
- Minutes of the Organizational MeetingSecond Chapter Reading
- A Mission Statement, in Three DraftsSecond Chapter Reading
Chapter 2
The Documents That Describe the Work
Five documents, and the reason to write them is not the funder. It is that you cannot hand over a programme that exists only in your judgement.
- Theory of Change, on One PageSecond Chapter Reading
- Programme MapSecond Chapter Reading
- Intake FormSecond Chapter Reading
- Outcome Measurement PlanSecond Chapter Reading
- Photograph and Story ConsentSecond Chapter Reading
Chapter 3
The Documents That Ask
Five documents, one of which is a legal requirement most small organizations satisfy badly and do not know it.
- Case for SupportNorth County Diaper Bank
- The Letter That Precedes the AskSecond Chapter Reading
- Gift AcknowledgementNorth County Diaper Bank
- Grant Proposal SkeletonSecond Chapter Reading
- Donor Privacy StatementNorth County Diaper Bank
Chapter 4
The Documents That Account
Five documents, and the second one is the only budget in this series that you can check with a calculator.
- Chart of AccountsSecond Chapter Reading
- Year One Budget, ActualSecond Chapter Reading
- Board Financial DashboardNorth County Diaper Bank
- Internal Controls, for an Organization With Five PeopleSouthside Community Kitchen
- Reserve PolicySecond Chapter Reading
Chapter 5
The Documents That Employ
Eight documents, and the shortest one in the chapter is the set of policies that replaced a fifty-one page handbook.
- Job DescriptionSecond Chapter Reading
- The PostingSecond Chapter Reading
- Interview ScorecardSecond Chapter Reading
- Offer LetterSecond Chapter Reading
- Contractor AgreementSouthside Community Kitchen
- The Nine PoliciesSouthside Community Kitchen
- Performance Conversation RecordSouthside Community Kitchen
- Volunteer Role DescriptionNorth County Diaper Bank
Chapter 6
The Documents That Govern
Seven documents, and one of them is the same meeting written down twice.
- Board Member Role DescriptionNorth County Diaper Bank
- Letter of AppointmentNorth County Diaper Bank
- Annual Board CalendarSecond Chapter Reading
- An Agenda With a Real Decision On ItSecond Chapter Reading
- The Same Meeting, Minuted Twice
- Executive Director EvaluationSecond Chapter Reading
- Emergency Succession PlanSouthside Community Kitchen
Chapter 7
The Documents That Keep You Out of Trouble
Six documents. None is interesting. One of them is a single page that would have prevented more of the failures in this series than anything else in it.
- Compliance CalendarNorth County Diaper Bank
- Document Retention ScheduleSecond Chapter Reading
- Whistleblower PolicySecond Chapter Reading
- Data InventorySecond Chapter Reading
- Intellectual Property AssignmentSouthside Community Kitchen
- The Folder
The three organizations
Three organizations, followed throughout.
Second Chapter Reading
A literacy nonprofit in a small valley town, formed on a first-year budget of $26,360. It appears in Books One, Three, Four, Five, and Six.
North County Diaper Bank
Founded by a labour and delivery nurse of eleven years on a single fact: federal food assistance does not cover diapers. It carries Book Two and the first half of Book Six.
Southside Community Kitchen
Seven years old, five paid staff, roughly 450 meals a week. It supplies the documents written after difficulty rather than before it: a dismissal handled badly, a staff handbook never applied, two employees misclassified.
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