Step 3: Gather important documents

• name,
• purpose,
• head office location, and
• founding directors.

If your articles or letters patent changed later, the government gives you a supplementary letters patent.

• board orientation packages
• with lawyers who helped you incorporate
• grant applications

You can also obtain a copy through the Ontario Business Registry.

• how to call a members’ meeting
• who can be a board member
• how do you become a member
• how do you stop being a member

• board orientation packages
• with lawyers who helped write your bylaws

If you can’t find your current bylaws but you had an earlier version of them, you may be able to recreate them.

To recreate them, find an earlier version. Then, go through all your minutes since that version was approved and look for bylaw amendments.

If you can’t find any version of your bylaws, you should consider seeking legal advice.

• annual members meetings
• special members meetings
• board meetings

You may be able to put together missing information from minute books.

• changes to your nonprofit’s articles or letters patent
• to change your nonprofit’s name
• to sell a large part of your property

• when they were elected
• when they retired or resigned
• who served as officers, for example, president, chair, secretary, treasurer
• when they served as officers
• their address for service
• their email address, if they agreed to receive documents electronically

ONCA requires keeping directors and officers registries for 6 years.

1. the minutes of each annual members meeting to see who was elected
2. board meeting minutes to see who was elected an Officer and when they were replaced
3. board meeting minutes to see if a board member was elected during the year

• written
• provided within 10 days of the election or appointment (although if a consent is signed later than this time, the consent is still valid)

There is not yet a standard form with a required format for the director’s written consent. But it must have a statement by the elected or named director that they consent to act as a director of the organization.

This is an example of a  Director’s Consent Letter. 

Your nonprofit can add other types of consent to this document as well, such as such as a consent to hold directors’ meetings and meetings of director committees by telephone or electronic means.

Letters of consent do not need to be filed with the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery.

• Member’s Name
• First date of membership
• End of membership (if they are a former member)
• Members’ address for service (this is not necessarily the member’s personal address. It is the address where they agree to receive official documents.)

• who can be a member
• how a person or organization becomes or stops being a member

You can create or update your nonprofit’s list of members based on what your bylaws say. It may also be helpful to look at minutes of directors’ and members’ meetings.

If you have different types of members, for example, regular, honorary, or youth, you need a separate list for each type of member.

If your nonprofit has no members you can ask the court to appoint members. You may need to talk to a lawyer.

• a breakdown of all your sources of revenue
• a record of all of the donations you received during the last fiscal year