The Kansas University Endowment Association

“John dicus, david dillon, m.d. Michaelis, robert taylor, and kurt watson have a business relationship.”

“The bylaws of the organization provide for a board of trustees to be comprised of 50 to 75 members. None of which receive compensation for their position as trustee. The board of trustees are reserved a limited number of powers which include: 1.) election or removal or to fill vacancies in the executive committee; and 2.) election of the chair of the executive committee. The other powers provided to the members of the board of trustees are outlined in the explanation to question 7b below.”

“The limited powers of the members of the board of trustees of the organization also include: 1.) election or removal or to fill vacancies of the members of the board of trustees; 2.) change in the number of members of the board of trustees; 3.) amendment of the articles of incorporation; and 4.) liquidation or dissolution of ku endowment, or disposition of all, or substantially all, of the assets of ku endowment, or any merger of ku endowment into or with another corporation. The bylaws do not grant the members of the board of trustees any other powers other than those indicated above. A full list of the members of the board of trustees can be found on the organization's website: www.kuendowment.org”

“Form 990 is prepared internally by the tax and compliance reporting officer. An internal review of the return is completed by appropriate ku endowment personnel. An external tax preparer then completes a review of the return. A draft copy of form 990 is provided to the audit committee to review and recommend revisions. Any such recommendations are provided in a timely manner to incorporate them in the return before transmittal to the irs. The audit committee reviews the 990 on behalf of the governing body (the executive committee) and recommends approval of the 990 by the executive committee. The final version of the 990 is placed on the trustee intranet for the executive committee to review prior to filing. After transmittal of the final return to the irs, a copy of the return is placed on the organization's public website.”

“An annual conflict of interest disclosure is requested from all current members of the board of trustees, officers and employees. To monitor and enforce compliance with the conflict of interest policy, upon disclosure of a conflict of interest, the chair of the executive committee or committee shall, if appropriate appoint a disinterested person or committee to investigate alternatives to the proposed transaction or arrangement. After exercising due diligence, the executive committee or committee shall determine whether ku endowment can obtain a more advantageous transaction or arrangement with reasonable efforts from a person or entity that would not give rise to a conflict of interest. If a more advantageous transaction or arrangement is not reasonably attainable under circumstances that would not give rise to a conflict of interest, the executive committee or committee shall determine by a majority vote of the disinterested members whether the transaction or arrangement is in ku endowment's best interest and for its own benefit and whether the transaction is fair and reasonable to ku endowment and shall make its decision as to whether to enter into the transaction or arrangement in conformity with such determination. If the executive committee or a standing committee has reasonable cause to believe that a trustee has failed to disclose actual or possible conflicts of interest, it shall inform the trustee of the basis for such belief and afford the trustee an opportunity to explain the alleged failure to disclose. If, after hearing the response of the trustee and making such further investigation as may be warranted in the circumstances, the executive committee or a standing committee determines that the trustee has in fact failed to disclose an actual or possible conflict of interest, it shall take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action.”

“Compensation of officers and such other persons as designated by the executive committee shall be determined by the compensation committee and be confirmed by the executive committee. The executive committee may adjust compensation determined by the compensation committee whenever, in its judgment, the best interests of ku endowment would be served thereby. A compensation committee of not less than five nor more than seven trustees shall be appointed annually by the chair of the executive committee. The chair of the executive committee shall designate one compensation committee member as chair. A majority in number of the committee shall constitute a quorum. The compensation committee must consist of individuals who (i) do not have a conflict of interest with respect to compensation arrangements or transactions; (ii) have obtained and relied upon appropriate data as to comparability prior to making any determination; and (iii) adequately document the basis for committee decisions concurrently with making determinations. The committee is directed to act in a manner that will avoid the intermediate sanctions provisions of the internal revenue code. Its duties shall be the review, study and recommendation of reasonable and necessary compensation for officers and employees of ku endowment and any and all such additional functions as may from time to time be designated by the executive committee.”

“Ku endowment was granted an exemption from federal income tax in 1934, and received additional confirmations of this exemption over the years, and most recently on october 18, 2010. A copy of the latter is available on the organization's website under the tab, "accountability," "financials and forms," "irs determination letter."”

“Ku endowment's financial statements are available on the organization's website under the tab "accountability," "financials and forms," "2015 audit report." also, a copy of the organization's currently filed form 990 is available in the same location on the organization's website. Schedule o of the form 990 provides a description of the organization's conflict of interest policy and certain other aspects of its governing documents, such as trustee elections and voting powers.”

“Rcp, llc is a single-member llc owned by the organization. The city of lawrence, ks, owns a piece of land adjoining land owned by rcp, llc. The land owned by rcp is part of a land lease for university of kansas athletic facilities. The city of lawrence built a community recreation center on the adjoining property during the fiscal year. As part of the development of this adjoining property the city of lawrence agreed to reimburse the developer for the costs incurred for any infrastructure costs that would benefit the adjoining properties. This agreement provided for the city of lawrence to reimburse rcp, llc for these infrastructure costs, who would then immediately reimburse the contractor for these costs. The total amount of the reimbursement of the infrastructure costs was $11,452,604. This amount was recorded as "other receipts and was associated with its program service of "facilities support" for the university of kansas. Upon receipt of these funds, the contractor who incurred the infrastructure costs was immediately reimbursed.”

“During the fiscal year, there were several transactions related to real estate used to support the university of kansas. One transaction involved the cancelation of a lease for a building that the organization was leasing to the university of kansas, in exchange for another piece of real estate on the medical center campus. The cancelation of the lease resulted in $1,193,829 of rental payments being returned to the organization. These were recorded as "other receipts and was associated with its program service of "facilities support" for the university of kansas. Also, funds totaling $1,533,037 were transferred to one of the organization's fund accounts from a trust administered by the university, at the request of the univerity, in order to fulfill one of its intended purposes, the support repairs and renovations to one university's scholarship hall housing units.”

“Amortization of pension adjustments -3,368,706. Change in net interest in ku endowment charitable gift fund 32,985. Change in value of life income gifts 2,453,655. Change in value of life insurance -1,471.”