Congregations Linked in Urban Strategy to Effect Renewal Inc.

“Congregations linked in urban strategy to effect renewal inc. ("cluster") has its form 990 prepared by an outside accounting firm and has established the following review process to ensure that the information reported is complete and accurate. When the form 990 has been prepared, reviewed by management and is ready to be filed with the internal revenue service, it is electronically sent to the executive committee of the board for any comments. Any comments are then grouped, summarized and provided to the outside accountants. Each issue is documented and addressed until the return is finalized and approved for filing. After review and approval by the executive committee, the form 990 is sent to the full board for review and a recommendation is made by the executive committee for board approval.”

“The organization currently has in place a conflict of interest policy. The policy is applicable to executive staff, officers, and members of the board, and is monitored by the corporate compliance officer and corporate compliance committee on an annual basis. In addition, the policy is updated as needed, with the last policy update completed in july 2013. Furthermore, annually, all executive staff, officers, and members of the board of directors will be required to submit a conflict of interest disclosure form. These will be reviewed by the compliance officer and the corporate compliance committee. If, in the judgment of the corporate compliance committee, executive director or the corporate compliance officer a conflict of interest is found to exist, the appropriate action will be taken to remediate the situation and eliminate any potential impact from the conflict of interest. Any employee who believes he or she may have either a real or potential conflict of interest, or any supervisor who believes that he or she knows of an employee who may have a real or potential conflict of interest, should immediately notify their supervisor and/or the corporate compliance officer and/or the executive director as appropriate. If, in the judgment of the corporate compliance committee, executive director or the corporate compliance officer a conflict of interest is found to exist, the appropriate action will be taken to remediate the situation and eliminate any potential impact from the conflict of interest.”

“The board of directors determines compensation for the executive director and the fiscal director by reviewing appropriate and adequate data, such as information included in regional non-profit salary surveys, to determine the reasonableness of compensation being considered. Salaries were last reviewed and adjusted in 2006. It was determined that the salaries approved at that time were well below the market rate for similar-sized nonprofits. The decision of the board and approval of the compensation is adequately documented in the minutes of the executive committee of the board and the minutes of the board of directors. There were no salary increases in 2014.”

“The organization makes its form 990 available for public inspection as required under section 6104 of the internal revenue code. The return is posted on guidestar.org and other similar types of websites. In addition, the financial statements, conflict of interest policy, articles of incorporation, form 990, form 1023, governing documents and by-laws are also available upon written request or by calling the organization directly.”

“The organization has a committee that assumes responsibility for oversight of the audit of its financial statements and selection of an independent accountant. This process did not change from the prior year.”