Background

What is the Shoe Box?

Think of the Shoe Box as an organizational history in a box – something you can easily pass along to a new board member or staff person who takes on the responsibility of helping to run your charity. Your Shoe Box should contain key documents and a series of important governing polices and documents made available by the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Shoe Box should aid you in finding the background documents you need when you are:

writing grants or fundraising proposals and need to add/copy attachments to your proposal;
filling out your T3010 annually;
preparing for your Annual General Meeting;
undergoing your charity’s annual audit or financial review;
orienting a new staff or board member to your organization (particularly the Board President, Treasurer and/or Executive Director-Office Administrator).
Your organization may not have all of these documents, so the Shoe Box checklist is also useful as a guideline for items you may want to develop (such as a policy and procedure manual) as you grow.

Once you have established your Shoe Box, make an additional back up copy CDs, photocopies or portable hard drives and store the backup version in a second, secure location. Have an annual plan for transferring key information in the event of a change of board members or staff.

For more information, click here to order a free CD of resources developed by The Charities File.

Tools and resources

Shoe Box Info Sheet summarizing the importance of having a Shoe Box and the types of information it should contain

Shoe Box Checklist containing a detailed list of essential documents