Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation Inc.

“The form 990 was reviewed by the finance committee with the preparing cpa. After any adjustments were made, the finance committee recommended to the board of directors the filing of the return. The board reviewed the final return and approved its filing with irs.”

“Annual review of rlsf written conflicts of interest policy with members of board; review with members of board of rlsf policy, signing of conflicts documentation, and disclosure of any conflicts of interest.”

“Executive committee obtains compensation data for comparably sized organizations operating within comparably sized geographic areas. The committee reviews this data and compares it to compensation for the executive director in making its determination that the salary is reasonable. The deliberation process is documented in the minutes of the board.”

“Governing documents are available to the public upon request. Audited financial statements and annual report are posted to www.rls.org website and available for inspection. Irs form 990 is posted to www.rls.org and other publicly available websites.”

“Rlsf sends mass mailings that include a purpose of responding to calls to action to advance elements of its mission. As such, audiences are chosen for their likelihood to respond to and benefit from these calls to action-not solely for their likelihood to provide financial support-and the mail includes a significant level of program content needed to fulfill such calls to action. According to the national sleep foundation, as many as 25 million adult americans, 10% of the adult population, may suffer from rls, yet only a tiny fraction have been diagnosed and sought treatment. However, a majority of the rlsf audience--which includes members, former members, and non-members--share an intimate connection to this highly underdiagnosed disease: as patients themselves, and as family members and caregivers to rls patients. Thus, it is in service to our mission that the rlsf mailings (1) alert and educate this audience to new developments and treatments in an effort to promote their own improved health, (2) ask them to alert their practitioners as well as family and friends to spread awareness and improve diagnosis and access to treatment for some of the millions of suspected undiagnosed cases, and (3) asks them, when appropriate, to advocate with government policy makers for access to necessary treatment and therapies and for a commitment to research that will further the mission. While each mailing usually contains some fundraising content and a small segment of each audience--typically less than 10%--is likely to donate, most of the letters' content supports our calls to action to improve the health of the audience through education and self-awareness, to spread word of rls advances to others, and to advocate for policy advancing the mission. Accordingly, we believe rlsf mass mailings that reflect the purposes and calls-to-action, audience selection criteria, and content related to purpose as described above meet the standards for joint cost allocation of non-profit organization expenses set forth in the american institute of certified public accountants (aicpa) statement of position 98-2, and, in accordance with the financial accounting standards board (fasb) guidelines, we divide our direct mail costs between program services and fundraising.”