Birch Family Services Inc.

“Form 990 was prepared by a nationally renowned accounting firm in conjunction with the organization's financial department. Draft form 990 was reviewed by the organization's ceo, cfo and accounting manager and then provided to all members of the board of directors in draft via electronic mail, with an opportunity for them to comment or make inquiry before it was filed with the internal revenue service.”

“All employees and board members of birch family services have an obligation to conduct business within guidelines that prohibit actual or potential conflicts of interest. Employees and board members are required to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest and seek guidance from the compliance officer on how to handle the situation. Board members and management employees will complete a conflict of interest disclosure statement to report any potential conflict of interest on an annual basis. Business dealings with outside entities should not result in unusual gain for those entities, birch board members and employees. Because of the above statement, if a conflict arises, birch evaluates the potential gain on a case by case basis before determining if the board member or employee in question can be allowed to participate.”

“The board reviewed a detailed study of the four (4) executive level positions, and the compensation was determined by contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and decision, comparing them to local agencies with a comparable mix of services and funding sources. The data for this study was drawn from the most recent form 990s reported by those agencies and indicated that total compensation of birch's executives was within +/- 3% of the median total compensation for their counterparts in the peer group agencies. The board concluded that the compensation to executives of birch family services is justified by the outstanding quality of their job performance, their years of experience and the broad scope of their duties, the diversity and complexity of the programs and services they manage, the financial resources of the agency, and duly diligent periodic reviews by the board of directors of executive compensation in relation to like positions in comparable agencies.”

“The organization made its governing documents, conflicts of interest policy and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“Allocation of compensation to filing and related organizations: gerald f. Maurer's, chief executive officer, compensation was internally allocated to a related organization, herbert g. Birch services fund, inc. Ein 11-3339813. A form w-2 was not issued by the related organization.”