Unbound

“An independent accounting firm prepares the 990. The 990 is then reviewed by the organization's president/ceo and finance personnel. Any questions and concerns the organization's president/ceo and finance personnel have are addressed and any corrections or clarifications that need to be made are made. The 990 is then provided to the full board for their review. Any questions and concerns of the board are addressed and corrections or clarifications are made prior to filing the 990.”

“All board members annually disclose their involvement with other organizations, communities, employment, staff, vendors or any other associations that might potentially produce a conflict, regardless of the likelihood of an actual conflict arising. New board nominees also complete a disclosure form. When the board is to decide an issue that presents an unavoidable conflict of interest for a member, the member with the conflict abstains from participation in both the deliberation and vote. All employees annually sign a receipt and acknowledgement of unbound's employee manual. The code of conduct which forbids a conflict or the appearance of a conflict between the employee's personal interests and those of unbound is part of that review. The employee's signature acknowledges their agreement to adhere to this code and to immediately disclose a suspected conflict of interest to the president & ceo, people experience team, or confidentially through unbound's independent reporting service.”

“THE COMPENSATION OF THE PRESIDENT/CEO FOR JUNE 2022-JUNE 2023 WAS DETERMINED AT THE JUNE 2022 GOVERNING BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING. PRIOR TO THIS DISCUSSION, THE PRESIDENT/CEO AND THE NONVOTING MEMBERS OF THE BOARD EXCUSED THEMSELVES FROM THE BOARD MEETING. THE VOTING MEMBERS MET WITH THE DIRECTOR OF UNBOUND EXPERIENCE WHO PROVIDED THEM WITH THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WHICH THEY USED TO DETERMINE THE COMPENSATION AMOUNT. USING COMPANALYST, WHICH IS AN INDEPENDENT COMPENSATION CONSULTANT SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAM, MARKET DATA RESEARCH WAS REVIEWED BASED ON CURRENT MARKET PAY FOR SIMILAR POSITIONS. OUR PHILOSOPHY IS TO TARGET THE 25TH TO 60TH PERCENTILE OF THE RANGE WHERE THE JOB HAS BEEN MATCHED. IT IS ALSO BASED ON CURRENT MARKET DATA WITHIN THE PROFIT AND NON-PROFIT INDUSTRIES, CONTAINING UP TO 500 EMPLOYEES AND MATCHED ON JOB RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE MARKET PLACE. THE BOARD CONSIDERED OTHER FACTORS SUCH AS A COMPARISON OF COMPENSATION OF EXECUTIVES FROM SIMILAR SPONSORSHIP ORGANIZATIONS AND A FORMAL EVALUATION OF JOB PERFORMANCE TO DETERMINE THE PRESIDENT/CEO'S JUNE 2022-JUNE 2023 COMPENSATION. THE VOTING MEMBERS THEN APPROVED THE ANNUAL SALARY FOR THE PRESIDENT/CEO. sUBSTANTIATION OF THE DECISION OF THE BOARD'S DETERMINATION WAS MAINTAINED BY THE DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCE. THE COMPENSATION OF THE OTHER OFFICERS (TREASURER AND SECRETARY) AND ALL OTHER EMPLOYEES WERE APPROVED BY THEIR RESPECTIVE SUPERVISOR AT UNBOUND. IT WAS BASED ON BOTH A WRITTEN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AS WELL AS THE ORGANIZATION'S COMPENSATION FRAMEWORK AND PLANNING SYSTEM. COMPENSATION CHANGE DECISIONS ARE PLANNED AND DOCUMENTED IN THE ADP WORKFORCE NOW COMPENSATION MODULE.”

“Unbound's articles of incorporation, audited financial statements, by-laws and conflict of interest policy along with irs forms 1023, 990 and 990-t are available for inspection at our offices. Unbound's audited financial statements and irs forms 990 and 990-t are posted on our website (www.unbound.org). Printed copies are available upon request.”

“Unbound's mission is to walk with the poor and marginalized of the world. 1. We provide personal attention and direct benefits to children, youth, aging and their families so they may live with dignity, achieve their desired potential and participate fully in society. 2. We invite people of goodwill to live in daily solidarity with the world's poor through one-to-one sponsorship. 3. We build community by fostering relationships of mutual respect, understanding and support that are culturally diverse, empowering and without religious or other prejudice. Grounded in the gospel call to serve the poor, unbound is a lay catholic organization working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service.”

“Total grants for the sponsorship program were $111.75 million in 2022. At the end of 2022, a total of 268,723 individuals in latin america, asia and africa were sponsored through unbound. They included 238,431 children and youth, 30,081 elders and 211 candidates studying for the priesthood or religious life. Following are examples of achievements in the sponsorship program, as sponsored individuals and their families partnered with local unbound teams to identify specific challenges they must overcome, set their own goals and formulate plans to achieve them. Unbound's sponsorship program connects sponsored individuals and their families with sponsors and supportive local communities of staff members and other families. Through sponsorship, individuals and families have resources and a solid support network to chart their paths out of poverty. In 2022, unbound had programs in 19 countries including bolivia, chile, colombia, costa rica, the dominican republic, ecuador, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, india, kenya, madagascar, mexico, nicaragua, peru, the philippines, rwanda, tanzania and uganda. Sponsorship connects people across geographic, economic and social boundaries. It enables the development of relationships based on listening, encouragement and mutual respect. Sponsors - through their monthly financial contributions and correspondence they receive from their sponsored friends - can experience a sense of connection with someone in another part of the world and satisfaction knowing they are helping another human being reach their inherent potential. Sponsors can also write to their sponsored friends to offer encouragement and build rewarding relationships. Unbound had 220,250 sponsors from the u.s. And around the world at the end of 2022. Sponsored individuals and their families partner with local unbound teams to make program and benefit decisions that help them meet their basic needs and develop their potential over the course of their time in the program, which can be up to 18 years or more. Sponsored individuals and their families use financial assistance to help meet needs such as education, nutrition, housing improvements, technology, transportation and health care. They also have access to leadership and economic development opportunities related to financial literacy, skill development and income generation. The flexibility of the program and unbound's cash transfer system of benefit delivery allows families to use the funds to meet their specific needs. Sponsorship requires active participation from families as the program is highly personalized. With support from social workers and other local unbound staff, families take a central role in shaping the sponsorship program and forming support networks to encourage each other and hold each other accountable. Small support groups of parents and guardians, mostly made up of mothers, are key to the sponsorship program's success. Mothers are the primary leaders in unbound. They know best when it comes to meeting their children's needs, and unbound listens to them and learns from them. Mothers of sponsored children join small support groups and often become leaders by serving their communities and planning program activities. Mothers participating in unbound have taken advantage of micro-savings and credit opportunities to meet urgent family needs or start or boost small businesses to generate income. Parents have also formed cooperatives to meet community needs and provide income for members. Outcomes of sponsorship vary but typically relate to education, leadership development, improved health and nutrition status, dignified housing, skill development and increased income through livelihood opportunities for families. Monitoring program success monitoring and evaluation of programs unbound is committed to learning from experience and ensuring that efforts make a positive impact in the lives of children, youth, elders and families around the world. The organization a”

“Unbound projects around the world conduct evaluations in their local contexts to determine outcomes for sponsored members and their families. Methods include surveys of sponsored members on income and skill development, focus groups on attitudes and behavioral changes, and interviews to document empowerment. Organization-wide program evaluations focus on four key domains: education, economic status, community participation and empowerment. Empowerment refers to one's ability to make decisions for oneself and act freely in a way that is intentional and goal oriented. In 2021, unbound engaged with the canopy lab, a consultancy firm, to conduct an external evaluation to better understand if the unbound program helps sponsored families exit economic poverty. The canopy lab designed a mixed methods study that was administered in five program sites around the world. The canopy lab's analysis showed positive results in four of the five sites regarding a decrease in poverty over length of time of participation in the program. The fifth site yielded more complex results indicating increased perceptions of resilience in households with longer participation in the program; however, further analysis will be needed to better understand the overall economic impact on families. Overall, longer participation in the program was found to have an association with a greater sense of ability to weather shocks like covid-19. Another consistent finding was the higher likelihood of saving with participation in unbound. A higher proportion of unbound families engaged in savings compared to their communities. Moreover, for those households who did report engaging in savings, the evaluation found that families that have been in the program longer were less likely to save toward basic needs and more toward non-basic, goal-oriented and long-term needs. These encouraging signs regarding savings show concrete potential to improve the next generation's chances of exiting economic poverty. Unbound expanded the use of a methodology entitled unbound's goal orientation powered by poverty stoplight in 2022. The methodology allows participating families to define poverty and then measure their own progress as they set and work toward goals to exit poverty. Twenty-four unbound program sites completed orientation on this methodology in 2021 and 2022, with four program sites completing the survey that is at the heart of the methodology, with 42,208 families. Examples of program success cash transfers with the introduction and adoption of individual bank account models, the vast majority, about 98%, of sponsored members now have more direct access to their personal benefits. While a major concern surrounding cash transfer programs has been misuse of funds, unbound seeks to answer these concerns by conducting evaluations that focus on the purchasing behavior of the families participating in the sponsorship program. Adapting programs to families' needs in 2022, 55 local-level evaluations were conducted, with many focused on studying the impacts of income-generating initiatives of unbound families. With global economic challenges resulting in high inflation and cost of living, studies trying to understand the economic resilience and safety nets of unbound families in the form of savings and loans were conducted in several program sites, such as guatemala, the philippines, honduras, kenya and ecuador. Several evaluations were also conducted to study the result of the early adaptations made to the program when the pandemic hit. For example, philippine projects conducted evaluations on the results of including mother leaders in monitoring and evaluating program participation in their communities, and the results highlighted the positive contribution it had to further solidarity and connection between families. An evaluation in tanzania looked at unbound families' reports on the new models and methods of support from social workers and their effectiveness in budgeting and go”

“In 2019, a local evaluation in kisumu, kenya, focused on understanding the factors that were stopping the members of the parent groups from taking loans from their group's cooperative called borneka sacco (savings and credit cooperative). They found out that 54% of the respondents had never taken a loan from the sacco, mostly because they felt like the regulation that qualifies the members for larger loans limited them in terms of when and how much they could withdraw for a loan. The team and the sacco members are reviewing as well as educating the members on the guidelines and regulations of the loaning process to help more members in need. Mothers and guardians in unbound reported feeling they are having a greater impact on their communities. Thirty percent of unbound mothers said they were involved in making decisions within their communities compared to 16% of mothers in the comparison group. Evaluation results showed how more women in unbound are taking economic risks starting small businesses to enact change. More women in the unbound program have their own businesses, and fewer women in the program are unemployed than mothers in the comparison group. More mothers in unbound also reported having complete choice in deciding or changing their occupations. This evaluation was a follow-up to a 2013 global evaluation on the same topic. The 2017 study revealed that 90% of mothers of sponsored children believed they had the power to change their family's situation, and 63% reported they were active in solving problems in their communities, among other findings on participation and empowerment indicators. In 2022, unbound concluded a six-year longitudinal data collection on economic outcomes for sponsored members and their families. The evaluation includes both quantitative and qualitative data and follows families from the time they began in the program. As a part of the final year data collection, participating families were also invited to reflect on their experiences and journeys by reviewing the highlights of the data collected in the past six years. Final analysis of this longitudinal study is planned for 2023, when data trends and patterns from all study sites and participating families will be investigated. Elders elders in communities where unbound works face challenges related to health, access to care and medicine, and loneliness. Unbound seeks to overcome these challenges through benefits that provide resources for food, help with health and medical expenses, home visits and group activities. In 2018, an evaluation was conducted to measure unbound's impact with elders in relation to overcoming these challenges. The results were overwhelmingly positive. Sponsored elders experience a lessened sense of emptiness, encountered less frequent feelings of rejection, and underwent fewer moments of missing having people around than the elderly population who live in similar circumstances but are not part of the unbound sponsorship program. Additionally, sponsored elders feel they can rely on other individuals when they have problems, believe they can trust others in their lives, and consider themselves close to others in contrast to those elders who were waiting to participate in the unbound sponsorship program. Sponsored elders felt at ease when talking with more people about private matters, and they have more close friends to call on for help compared to non-sponsored elders. Sponsored elders did not worry as frequently about insufficient food intake, did not have to limit variety of food, and did not experience the same degree of hunger as elders outside the program who more frequently experienced these conditions. Lastly, the study revealed that sponsored elders had greater access to medicine and medical care than those elders who were waiting to be sponsored by unbound. According to the survey, 66% of sponsored elders said they received needed medical care, compared to 40% on the waiting list. The results of this evaluat”

“The following are examples of achievements in the unbound scholarship program. The unbound scholarship program assists students pursuing secondary, post-secondary and vocational education and struggling to continue because of economic circumstances. Along with academics, the program focuses on service to the community and leadership development. It includes a selection process for applicants that recognizes students with a participatory attitude, perseverance, commitment to service and a desire to be leaders in their communities. While education reduces poverty, the cost can be prohibitive. Many students must choose between paying for school and using income they earn from part-time or full-time work to provide much-needed income for their families. This leads to higher dropout rates at each level of school. Unbound scholarships make an education that was once out of reach accessible. Scholarships help students in communities around the world achieve their educational goals, follow their chosen career paths and be of service to the larger community. In 2022, scholarship grants to unbound field offices totaled more than $3.7 million. Scholarships were awarded to 8,839 students in bolivia, chile, colombia, costa rica, the dominican republic, ecuador, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, india, kenya, madagascar, mexico, peru, the philippines, tanzania and uganda. Scholarships help with tuition and other school fees, internet access, computer needs, transportation, books, supplies and more. Students contribute what they can toward their educational costs, as unbound scholarships are intended as supplemental assistance. Many scholars are unbound sponsored youth who need financial help in addition to sponsorship support to complete their educations. In 2022, 57% of scholarship students were also sponsored. Qualified non-sponsored students are eligible for scholarships and represent 43% of those receiving awards. Unbound scholars participate in community service as a requirement of the program. Scholars tutor children, teach literacy and health workshops, plan activities for elders, help with correspondence between sponsored children and their sponsors, provide technology expertise, and perform office work or other tasks related to their fields of study. A number of former scholars have joined unbound as staff members after they graduated. They bring to their work a wealth of knowledge and a special perspective on the program and their communities. In addition, it has been noted that some former scholars, because of their experiences in the scholarship program, have been inspired to choose career paths that contribute to the social and economic development of their communities (or rather are service-oriented). Students are choosing careers such as those in the fields of social work, psychology, education, health care and working with nonprofit organizations. Monitoring program success scholars are required to maintain good grades in addition to fulfilling service requirements. Local unbound teams monitor students to make sure they are meeting program requirements. They also provide annual reports on the scholarship programs in their areas. Examples of program success at various locations around the world, community-level evaluations are ongoing and being led by program staffs in each country. The primary purpose of evaluations at the local level is to ensure continuous program improvements and adaptations to the ever-changing environment. In 2022, 55 local-level evaluations were conducted, including the following examples pertaining to the scholarship program. In colombia, 92% of scholarship recipients showed very high academic performance. In addition, they reported a high degree of commitment to improving their overall quality of life by dealing with academic difficulties on time and through support and care from others. Scholars were seen to have high recognition in the community as they often use their training and skills to inspir”

“Change in uninsured annuity obligations $ 25,153 unrealized gain/loss on foreign currency ($ 2,206) ----------- total other changes in net assets $ 22,947”