Board Governance Calendar Template for Nonprofits

Board meetings and business, annual cycle of declarations, audit, Form 990 and Charity Commission filings, minutes timing, evaluation, policy reviews

非営利軽量IRS Form 990 Part VI (2025); Charity Commission annual returnboard governance calendar更新 2026/10/29

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使い方: Use it when a board secretary plans the year's governance business. Set the financial year end first and place each item in the meeting before it is due. The main pitfall is filing the annual return without giving the board the final version first.

プレビュー

Board Governance Calendar [YYYY]: [Organisation name]

A one-year calendar of the board's recurring business: meetings, budget and strategy, accounts and audit, regulatory filings, policy reviews, conflict of interest declarations and board evaluation. It includes dated examples for a US tax-exempt organisation (IRS Form 990 Part VI, 2025 instructions) and a charity in England and Wales (Charity Commission annual return). The example uses a financial year from 1 January to 31 December. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example. This is a planning format, not legal or tax advice: check each deadline on the official page every year.

Document control

Field	Value
Document ID	[GOV-CAL-YYYY]
Financial year end	[YYYY-12-31]
Owner	[@board-secretary]
Approved by	[Board, minute reference]
Last updated	YYYY-MM-DD

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
1.0	YYYY-MM-DD	[@board-secretary]	Calendar for the year

1. Meetings

Meeting	Month	Main business
Board 1 (Example)	February	Annual conflict of interest declarations, register of interests, risk register review
Finance and audit committee (Example)	April	Draft accounts, auditor findings, reserves calculation
Board 2 (Example)	May	Approve accounts and trustees' or annual report, review final Form 990 before filing
Board 3 (Example)	September	Strategy review, policy reviews due this year, board evaluation results
Board 4 (Example)	November	Approve next year's budget and reserves target, set next year's calendar

2. Annual cycle

Month	Item	Who	Basis
January	Send annual declarations of interest	[@board-secretary]	Conflict of interest policy; Form 990 Part VI line 12b
February	Board reviews register of interests	Board	Conflict of interest policy
March to April	Year-end audit or independent examination	[@finance-lead], auditor	Governing document, funder and regulator rules
May	Board receives the complete final Form 990 before it is filed	Board	Form 990 Part VI line 11a
May 15 (US example)	Form 990 due (15th day of the 5th month after year end), or file Form 8868 for an automatic 6-month extension to November 15	[@finance-lead]	IRS Instructions for Form 990 (2025); About Form 8868
Every meeting	Minutes approved by the later of the next meeting or 60 days	[@board-secretary]	Form 990 Part VI line 8
September	Board self-evaluation and skills review	Chair	Board practice
October 31 (England and Wales example)	Annual return to the Charity Commission, within 10 months of year end, with accounts and reports where required	[@finance-lead]	Charity Commission "Prepare a charity annual return"
November	Budget, reserves policy review, insurance renewal	Board	Reserves policy
[Month]	[State registration, funder report, policy review]	[@owner]	[Source]

3. Policy review schedule

Policy	Last approved	Next review
Conflict of interest policy	YYYY-MM-DD	YYYY-MM-DD
Reserves policy	YYYY-MM-DD	YYYY-MM-DD (annual)
Gift acceptance policy	YYYY-MM-DD	YYYY-MM-DD
Safeguarding policy	YYYY-MM-DD	YYYY-MM-DD (annual)
Whistleblower and document retention policies	YYYY-MM-DD	YYYY-MM-DD

4. Related templates

Board minutes for each meeting in section 1
Conflict of interest policy for the annual declarations
Reserves policy for the November review
Strategic plan for the September strategy review
Annual budget for the November budget

Standard and licence note

Based on the IRS Instructions for Form 990 (2025), Part VI lines 8, 11a and 12b and the filing due date (https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i990), IRS "About Form 8868" (https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8868), and the Charity Commission guidance "Prepare a charity annual return" (last updated 2026-09-16, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/prepare-a-charity-annual-return), all checked 2026-10-30. Accounting and audit thresholds for charities in England and Wales changed for financial years ending on or after 2026-09-30; check them on the official page. The text and examples are original. Template licence: MIT.