The Hormel Foundation

“The Form 990 is prepared internally and reviewed by the organizations public accounting firm. The return is then reviewed by the Finance Committee and presented to the Board of Directors prior to filing.”

“The conflict of interest policy covers all board members and is reviewed annually with Board members and they are annually also required to disclose any conflicts and sign a form disclosing any conflicts. The signed forms are kept on file by the Secretary/Treasurer. At the start of each board meeting, members are requested to declare any conflicts. The chair of the board determines if such conflict requires said member to be excused from the meeting during the discussion and voting on the topic of conflict or if it only requres an abstention from voting. All such actions are documented in the board minutes.”

“All governing documents, conflict of interest policy and the audited financial statements are available upon request.”

“Annually the Compensation Committee reviews compensation for the President/Executive Director, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary/Treasurer. The committtee uses national salary surveys to complete its review. Their review is documented in committee minutes and the results of their review are shared with board members at a board meeting where the results are discussed and annual compensation amounts are voted on by the board. The last review was in November 2025 for compensation effective January 1, 2026.”

“The Executive Committee has the authority to act on behalf of the Board of Directors when given that authority in between board meetings. The details of the Executive Committee meetings are documented in their committee minutes which are shared with each board member.”

“As a supporting organization a majority of our board members come from those supported organizations to have control over the boards decisions. As such, they are not independent directors. Two of the elected directors are also officers so they are not independent directors.”

“Tom Dankert and Sheri Dankert - family relationship”

“Bylaws were updated and approved by the board.. Major changes were delegating day to day operational authority to the officers vs. the board, clarified the age limit for board of directors, removed the written notice requirement of meetings,updated the titles of the officers and their duties”

“The Finance Committee is responsible for review of the financial statements and the Audit Committee is responsible for oversight of the audit and selection of the independent auditors.”