The Water Research Foundation

“The executive committee consists of chair, vice-chair, treasurer and a member-at-large. The executive committee acts as the administrative body of wrf, evaluates the performance of the ceo, provides oversight to ceo and has authority to fund projects under the emerging opportunities (eo program up to $200,000 per project. Anything over $200,000 must be approved by the board.”

“The draft 990 is reviewed by wrf's accounting staff and forwarded to chief financial officer and the audit committee for further review. Once the 990 has been approved by the audit committee, the final version of the return is exported to a site to which the board of directors has access, along with email correspondence stating it is available. This is done prior to filing the form 990 with the irs.”

“Wrf regularly and consistently monitors and enforces conflict of interest at varying frequencies and levels of monitoring, depending on the risk of a potential conflict and its likely impact on wrf. Wrf's policy addresses conflict of interest in terms of its staff, management, board of directors and volunteer leadership. On an annual basis, the board of directors, as wrf representatives, submit a signed disclosure of significant interests form which identifies existing or potential relationships that may cause a conflict of interest with wrf activity. Paid staff, also deemed wrf representatives, submit a conflict of interest statement when they are hired, and subsequently at the beginning of each year thereafter, are responsible to immediately self-report any known conflict of interest whenever such conflict arises. Any disclosure is first adjudicated by wrf management, pursuant to guidelines established by the policy. Management will elevate a disclosed conflict to the foundation's audit committee for its oversight, when necessary. The audit committee performs this function on behalf of the board of directors. Wrf's conflict of interest sets stringent guidelines for conduct, confidentiality, decision-making and acceptance of gratuities. Decisions of this committee may be appealed to the executive committee of the board of directors. Violation of the provision of this policy is cause for removal from wrf activities. Directors shall inform the full board at the outset of the discussion of proposals for potential funding of any involvement of their organization in any of the proposals under consideration. For projects in which a director's organization is the primary submitter on a proposal, the director must excuse himself/herself from all discussion of the proposal by leaving the room. The director is ineligible to vote on the proposal. During its normal course of business, wrf also seeks involvement from several volunteer committees or councils, comprised primarily of subscriber personnel or other professionals with water-related expertise. As monitored by a wrf representative, all committee volunteers are required to self-report any existing or potential conflicts of interest. Reported conflicts shall then be assessed by wrf's representative and/or wrf management, who shall be responsible to enforce the provisions of wrf's conflict of interest policy pursuant to that volunteer's level of involvement of decision-making in his/her respective committee or council.”

“Executive committee deliberates and reviews the chief executive officer's compensation annually in private sessions. An independent compensation survey of chief executive officer's compensation (salary and benefits) and the executive committee made their evaluation based on this information then submitted their decision to the full board for their action. The executive committee also looks for significant deviations from a normal salary range, if applicable. Currently there are no significant deviations from the normal reported salary range for similar chief executive officer positions. This process was last completed in 2024. Wrf salary and compensation plan is reviewed annually to ensure that key employees are fairly compensated using comparative data received from various national survey sources and also conducts bi-annual compensation benchmarking studies. A salary budget is prepared on these results. Compensation, fringe benefit calculations and graphs are submitted to the finance committee for evaluation at their meeting each november. The finance committee submits its recommendation for approval to the full board for action at the december board meeting. The recommendation of the finance committee is documented in their meeting minutes and board approval is documented in the board meeting minutes. This process was last completed in 2024.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are available upon request.”