Local First Arizona Foundation

“The Executive Director of the organization distributes a pdf copy of the 990 return to all board members for review and comment prior to being filed. At the first meeting of the board following the filing of the 990 with the IRS, the complete Form 990 is presented to the board by the organizations lead officers with responsibility over the form 990s review thereafter, questions are taken and the form, its preparation, and its public relation impact is discussed.”

“At each board and committee meeting, if there is a discussion of selecting or engaging a vendor or service provider, all in attendance are asked to recuse themselves from this discussion if there could be a perceived conflict. Annually, the organization reviews and discusses the conflict of interest policy and requests that each board member list and acknowledge any known conflicts.”

“The executive committee reviews the compensation for the Executive Director by comparing her compensation to the compensation of individuals in like positions, in comparable organizations using Forms 990, compensation studies, and other available data. The committee then approves any changes in compensation based on this information. The organization has no other paid officers or employees meeting the IRS definition of a key employee.”

“The organization will provide in a timely manner, copies of all governing documents including its conflict of interest policies and financial statements when requested in writing or in person.”

“Now featuring over 700 individual listings of where to find good food, Good Food Finder is Arizonas most comprehensive online directory of local food. At the 2015 Local First Arizona Foundation Food Farm Finance Forum, 132 farmers and producers, chefs and other local food buyers, economic development entities, local food system advocates, and students convened for two days to change the way our desert state feeds itself. This years focus was on marketing and outreach, food aggregation and distribution, and access to capital and business development with an overall emphasis on building food hubs and collaboration. 100 of forum attendees reported gaining valuable networking and coalition building opportunities. And Arizona food producers and entrepreneurs connected with organizations that are specifically interested in funding sustainable food enterprises. In 2015, Local First Arizona Foundation took full ownership of the Arizona FarmerChef Connection, an annual event with the mission of building wholesale business relationships between food producers and buyers. The FarmerChef Connection has grown from being an intimate event to one that reached over 400 attendees of all kinds this year. More than 50 of attendees were represented by buyers looking to set up direct wholesale purchase accounts with Arizonas food producers. Additionally, buyers who attended this year depicted a wide array of those looking to procure closer to home, ranging from locally-owned restaurants like Mamas Hawaiian Bar-B-Cue to large-scale purchasers such as Costco, Frys, Aramark and Panda Express. In 2015, Local First Arizona Foundation completed filming and published nine videos in series designed to build connections between consumers and local food producers. These videos will be used to showcase Arizonas unique local foods industry and further connect individuals to the local food economy. Local First Arizona Foundation staff hold serves on various following boards, commissions and working groups in food policy across the state to network with other food system advocates and local policy officials in order to affect change to increase access to healthy local foods in our communities and strengthen our food system 1 Arizona Farm to School Advisory Council 2 Arizona Hunger Leadership Council 3 Arizona School Garden Network 4 City of Tucson Commission for Food Security, Heritage and Economics 5 Flagstaff Food Link 6 Healthy Local Food System Working Group 7 Maricopa County Food System Coalition 8 University of Arizona Center for Regional Food Studies 9Yavapai Food Policy Council. As the states Rural Development Council AZRDC, Local First Arizona Foundation helps rural businesses become more competitive and reduce economic leakage from their place by providing business owners tools and resources including new technology training, marketing opportunities, and strategies for business development. Additionally, AZRDC works to drive new dollars to rural places through increasing in-state tourism by leveraging arts and culture, Main Streets, and agri-tourism. AZRDC also works to empower rural Arizonans to improve their access to healthy foods which has health and economic benefits for all residents. AZRDC facilitates a statewide blog, which gets read 10,000 times per month, an email list of 3,030 subscribers and LFA has over 130,000 social media followers. These resources are available for our rural businesses and community partners to promote and educate all Arizonans about all that rural Arizona has to offer. Local First Arizona Foundation presented the annual Arizona Rural Policy Forum, a venue for connecting rural economic development professionals, nonprofits, community leaders, business owners, and other rural stakeholders who are interested in sustaining rural communities. This years 9th Annual Arizona Rural Policy Forum convened 225 representatives from every Arizona County to participate in two and a half days of workshops, speakers, breakout sessions”