<aside> What’s this about? Governing documents establish key components of governance within the organization. Common governing documents include Articles of Incorporation and bylaws.

What do I need to do? Determine the relevant governing documents based on your business structure. Then, draft the document(s), have them reviewed by a professional, and file them when you register your organization.

Contents

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Further reading

• Nonprofit Ally: How to Write Your Nonprofit Bylaws

Templates

• Articles of Incorporation
• Bylaws
• Co-founders agreement

Databases

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What are governing documents?

Governing documents establish key components of governance within the organization.

Governing documents for corporations

The type of governing documents you’ll need depend on your organization’s legal structure and state of incorporation.

We’re focusing on nonprofit corporations in this guide, so we’ll explore the governing documents you need for corporations. These follow a hierarchy of sorts:

1. Federal law and regulation
2. State law and regulation
3. Articles of incorporation
4. Bylaws
5. Staff handbook.

Federal and state regulations are out of your control, and we’ll cover the staff handbook later in Create a staff handbook.

For now, you’ll need:

• Articles of Incorporation

• Bylaws

• Optional: Co-founders agreement

Next steps

Get your governing documents reviewed by a professional.

Just like hiring an accountant to do your taxes, you can hire a person to prepare all your documents.

Then, file your documents when you register your organization.

• How much will this cost?

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