Equity in the Arts Fund

“The equity in the arts fund is a supporting organization of the cleveland foundation. Consequently, some of its trustees and officers are employees or officers of the cleveland foundation, compensated by the cleveland foundation. Keisha gonzalez is an officer of the equity in the arts fund and an employee of the cleveland foundation. She has a business relationships with boris oicherman, bronlynn thurman, and anthony gattuso, officers of the equity in the arts fund because mr. Oicherman, ms. Thurman, and mr. Gattuso are employees of the cleveland foundation.”

“The equity in the arts fund is an ohio nonprofit corporation. As such, it has members who have the right under ohio state law and the organizing instruments of the corporation to participate in its governance.”

“The equity in the arts fund has two classes of members, public members and donor members, who appoint the organization's board of trustees. The public member of the equity in the arts fund is the cleveland foundation and the donor member is the city of cleveland. As the public member, the cleveland foundation is entitled to appoint five (5) of the organizations nine (9) trustees, which constitutes a majority of the total number of trustees. The donor member is entitled to appoint four (4) trustees or a minority of the organization's full number of trustees. Form 990, part vi, section a, line 7b under the ohio nonprofit corporation law, members have the ability to approve certain key actions undertaken by a nonprofit corporation including merger of the corporation, sale, transfer, or other disposition of substantially all the assets of the corporation, amendment of the corporation's article's of incorporation or code of regulations, and dissolution of the corporation, among others. The code of regulations of the equity in the arts fund provides that only those members of the class which elected a trustee may remove and replace that trustee. The members of the equity in the arts fund have no additional special rights of approval of the board of trustees.”

“The equity in the arts fund has no committees with authority to act on behalf of the board.”

“Staff of the cleveland foundation prepares the form 990. The form 990 is reviewed by an officer of the cleveland foundation and one or more officers and trustees of the equity in the arts fund.”

“Line 12a, 12b, 12c, 13 and 14: the equity in the arts fund is a supporting organization of the cleveland foundation. Activities of the cleveland foundation's supporting organization are subject to policies for supporting organizations the cleveland foundation has in effect from time to time to ensure its supporting organizations operate in a manner consistent with governing tax exemption prinicples. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, supporting organizations are required to follow each of the conflict of interest, document rentention, and whistleblower policies maintained by the cleveland foundation, unless the board of the supporting organization (which in all cases is controlled by the cleveland foundation) adopts a functionally equivalent policy expressly in place of one of the foregoing policies. The equity in the arts fund follows these policies of the cleveland foundation. Except in the limited case noted below, trustees and officers with conflict of interest under the policy, must: (i) disclose their potential conflict of interest at the meeting; (ii) present any relevant information concerning the matter invloving the conflict, if requested; and (iii) recuse themselves from the meeting for the discussion and vote on the matter presenting the conflict. In limited cases involving the approval of grant distributions where trustee and officers have certain limited potential conflicts of interest with a proposed grant recipient, the trustees or officers must: (i) disclose their potential conflict of interest at the meeting; (ii) abstain from voting on the matter.”

“A and b: the equity in the arts fund has no employees and does not compensate its trustees and therefore does not maintain a process for determining compensation.”

“The equity in the arts fund is a supporting organization of the cleveland foundation. Per generally accepted accounting principles, the cleveland foundation financial statements are prepared and audited on a consolidated basis and include the supporting organizations. The supporting organizations are recognized in the footnotes disclosure in the statements. The cleveland foundation consolidated financial statements are available for review on the foundation's website. The equity in the arts fund's form 990 is also available upon request.”

“The equity in the arts fund is a supporting organization of the cleveland foundation. Consequently, some of its officers are employees of the cleveland foundation, compensated by the cleveland foundation.”

“Payment to defray operational cost paid by supported organization: back office support, such as, accounting, financial, and tax reporting.”