The Fraternal Order of Eagles Foundation

“The fraternal order of eagles foundation is a related organization of the grand aerie fraternal order of eagles. It is a brother organization to eagles memorial foundation and eagle village. All members of the grand aerie are members of the three child organizations and are governed in harmony with each other. All employees are provided by the grand aerie for all child organizations and all administrative processes are performed by the grand aerie and services are donated to the foe foundation.”

“The grand aerie fraternal order of eagles is comprised of eagle members who have attained the status of past worthy president or ten year secretary. These members convene annually at the international convention for the purpose of electing officers of the grand aerie. Nominations are presented on the floor of the convention and voting is done by ballot. With representatives carrying and submitting the votes of the local chapters, of the officers elected by majority vote of the delegates, four trustees and the junior past grand worthy president comprise the voting board members and are referred to as the board of grand trustees. The grand worthy president, elected by the membership, appoints the voting boards of eagle village and eagles memorial foundation, related organizations which are foe 501(c)(3) charities. The fraternal order of eagles foundation, the other related charity, has statutorily determined board made up of past grand worthy and grand madam presidents and currently serving officers of the fraternal order of eagles grand aerie. Appointments of the grand aerie members to these ancillary boards must be approved by the board of grand trustees.”

“All decisions made by the boards of eagle village, eagles memorial foundation and the fraternal order of eagles foundation must be ratified by the board of grand trustees as these four organizations are intertwined in mission and scope, the decisions of each affect the operations of all. The budget for each of the fraternal order of eagles related organizations is voted upon and approved at the convention by the membership.”

“After being prepared by independent auditors from information provided by management, the form 990 is reviewed by the cfo, treasurer, legal counsel and the board of trustees of the grand aerie of the fraternal order of eagles before filing.”

“The grand aerie fraternal order of eagles is ruled by a constitution and statutes which are the governing laws of the order. All officers, directors, trustee or key employees (odtk) are members and required to abide by the governing rules. One of the governing rules in article viii section 4 prohibits any odtk from profiting from the order. To enforce and monitor this policy the following steps are taken: 1) all odtk are required to sign a conflict of interest policy at the beginning of each fiscal year. 2) rfp's are provided to vendors for services or goods needed by the grand aerie. Where applicable more than one bid is obtained from these vendors. The vendors may not be affiliated with an odtk. 3) key employees review bids received and determine which proposal best fits the needs of the organization and obtains a contract or agreement from the vendor. 4) the cfo reviews the contract or agreement and makes a reasonable attempt to verify there is no affiliation between vendor and organization. 5) cfo forwards contract or agreement to legal counsel for review and approval. 6) key employees submit contract or agreement to board of grand trustees for approval. 7) prior to tax return preparation for fiscal year, all odtk are provided a questionnaire to complete which asks specifically if there are any business relationships which the organization should be made aware of. These questionnaires are required to be signed and kept on file by the legal department. 8) prior to completeing the return preparation documents, cfo reviews all responses to verify no relationships exist or if any are made known, they are reported appropriately on the 990 return.”

“The grand aerie provides employees to all related organizations: eagle village, eagles memorial foundation and the fraternal order of eagles foundation. Annually, a salary ordinance is prepared for compensation of all employees including the grand worthy president (ceo), the cfo and key employees. The salary ordinance is required by statute and must be approved by the board of grand trustees. All positions within the organization are graded based on responsibilities. Salary ranges are set for each grade. The salary ranges are adjusted annually based on the cost of living adjustment published in january. Initial salary ranges and job grades were determined and set with the use of independent outside counsel and are reviewed every three years. An external hr services company is utilized to gather current market rates for salaries for the position classifications of the organization. A review of 990 returns for other non-profit organizations is also researched to determine that the executive level salaries are in line with other similar organizations both locally and nationally. The organization has no incentive comp structure. All compensation is direct wages and sometimes bonus, based on a vote of the board of grand trustees; the numbers are entered into the budget which the membership votes to approve annually.”

“Governing documents (constitution and statutes) are printed in book form and are provided to local chapter secretaries and presidents. Members can order copies through their local chapter secretary. The constitution and statutes has conflict of interest policy language. The audited financial statements and budget to actual variance reports are presented to the membership at the annual convention and are available to state secretaries upon request.”