Set Donor Record Retention

Define the release decision

A fundraising cycle has closed, but CRM extracts, gift receipts, pledge correspondence, payment confirmations and acknowledgement logs may have different retention triggers and hold requirements.

Run the control sequence

1. 01Identify the record class and the charity policy, tax rule, donor restriction, audit requirement or professional advice controlling retention.
2. 02Record the event that starts the period, such as submission, decision, payment or gift acknowledgement or campaign closure.
3. 03Separate source evidence, working copies, acknowledgements and authorized recipient communications.
4. 04Apply active donor inquiry, litigation, fraud-review, tax-review and contractual holds before disposal.
5. 05Verify authorized disposition across devices, removable media, email and synchronized folders.

Preserve enough evidence

Record the donor extract identifier, fundraising cycle, source device or system, export date, manifest, responsible custodian, authorized recipients, key location, encryption environment, recovery result, retention rule and next review date. Do not put passwords, recovery secrets or unnecessary donor details in the decision record.

Keep surrounding controls visible

Deleting a vault item does not guarantee erasure from backups, recipient systems, SSD blocks or provider retention layers.

Donor-export preparation can create extra copies on tablets, laptops, removable media, synchronization folders and recipient devices. The archive owner must address those copies separately and verify the current software release before relying on product behavior.

Primary references

• IRS: Charitable contributions
• FTC: Protecting personal information

References support specific controls and do not imply endorsement.