Minneapolis Regional Chamber Development Foundation

“The board of directors may designate three or more of its members to constitute the executive committee. To the extent determined by the board, the executive committee has the full authority of the board of directors in the management of the business of the foundation between meetings of the full board.”

“In 2024, the organization became aware of a material diversion of assets of the chamber foundation involving transactions between 2019 and 2022. The diversion of assets is estimated to be $137,500 and involved cash payments made for unsubstantiated purposes to an unknown vendor and cash payments made for unsubstantiated business purposes to an unknown credit card. The management and board of the chamber foundation engaged services of an attorney to investigate the diversion of assets when the matter was discovered in 2024. The chamber foundation is continuing to investigate the matter to determine future actions for recovery of the diverted assets. The chamber foundation is also working to strengthen its internal control procedures to ensure measures are in place to both prevent and detect a similar occurence in the future.”

“Form 990 is prepared by an independent accounting firm. It is reviewed by the finance committee and sent electronically to all board members prior to filing.”

“The conflict of interest policy covers directors, officers and employees of the organization. Each responsible person must review the policy and annually complete a disclosure for identifying any relationships, positions or circumstances in which the responsible person is involved that he or she believes could contribute to a conflict of interest arising. Any such information regarding a business interest is generally made available to the chair, the president, executive director and any committee appointment to address conflicts of interest, except to the extent additional disclosure is necessary in connection with the implementation of this policy. A person who has a conflict of interest shall not participate in discussions of the matter except to disclose material facts and to respond to questions. The person having a conflict of interest may not vote on the contract or transaction and shall not be present in the meeting room when the vote is taken, unless the vote is a secret ballot. Proceedings related to conflicts of interest are documented in the meeting minutes.”

“The foundation makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request.”