Alliance Credit Counseling Inc

“Kevin porter and kerry porter are brothers.”

“After preparation by the organization's independent certified public accounting firm, the draft 990 is reviewed before filing by the organization's president, treasurer, and independent board members.”

“Alliance regularly and consistently monitors its written conflict of interest policy. All staff and directors are given a copy of the policy which is explained during training or orientation. Any potential transaction which might represent a conflict of interest or an excess benefit transaction must be disclosed. Upon disclosure, after recusal by the interested party, the issue is reviewed by a group of disinterested directors. If no directors are disinterested, an independent committee is appointed. The group of disinterested directors of the independent committee, as applicable, is granted full authority to review the issue and take action necessary to comply with the safe harbor requirements of irs regulations.”

“Salaries of the organization's officers and other management officials are determined by independent directors based on comparability data, a reasoned opinion of outside legal counsel and contemporaneous substantiation of deliberation and decision.”

“The organization makes available all material required to be disclosed under irs rules.”

“Alliance credit counseling, inc., is dedicated to assisting consumers understand, manage and improve their finances and their lives, with a special focus on immediate help for those in financial distress. Alliance has four coordinated charitable and educational programs, and a complementary web resource site: first, and historically the largest, of our programs is budget, credit, and debt counseling, providing information, assistance, referrals, and financial management programs for those in financial distress. The second is specific financial counseling on bankruptcy and alternatives, providing information and education on financial topics, including both avoiding and surviving bankruptcy. Third is housing counseling, which is separate from the financial counseling programs in many cases, working with federal and state agencies to help those in housing crises save their homes. Fourth is a comprehensive community financial literacy program, providing hundreds of seminars for thousands of area residents on topics such as using credit wisely, coping with changes in income, and understanding banking and financial products. Overall, our major and various smaller programs have assisted 14,170 persons in the past fiscal year, and distributed 11,565 units of educational materials to consumers. Credit counseling: alliance's budget, credit and financial counseling programs assisted consumers with concerns regarding developing and maintaining budgets, obtaining and understanding credit reports, establishing a credit file, obtaining new credit, basic financial planning, savings programs for emergencies and opportunities, retirement programs, debt handling strategies, handling temporary or short term financial crisis, dealing with judgments and garnishments, obtaining mortgages or determining refinance options, dealing with delinquent mortgages and work out programs, obtaining, refinancing, and repaying student loans, dealing with delinquent secured debt such as vehicles, dealing with income reduction, debt negotiation and settlement issues and consequences, and bankruptcy. Alliance's focus since inception has been the local community and underserved rural communities and smaller cities nationwide, markets typically served by small local credit counseling agencies with weeks or months of lead time for appointments, and not usually served by other credit counseling programs with extended hours of operation, immediate access to counselors, internet and web technologies support, and teams of support personnel for quick access. In the past fiscal year, we provided free and individually tailored assistance, education and counseling to more than 8,800 families and individuals. Our initial consumer interview process involved detailed analysis of each person's situation, goals, budget, and options. Counselors provided verbal counseling and education tailored to the individuals' situations and goals, and made each person aware of the various options to achieve those goals. We worked with consumers to establish a workable financial plan and encouraged them with on-going support commitments, pertinent financial educational materials by mail or email, and appropriate referrals to other needed services. One of alliance's advantages over other counseling programs is its highly sophisticated computerized programs and services. Our unique software systems, developed and refined in-house, are designed to guide the counselors' discussions, and automatically provide publications and referral assistance tailored to the individual consumer's situation, as developed during the interview and counseling sessions. To assure quality counseling, our counselors are certified by a nationally-recognized financial counselor program that includes training to deal with the psychological problems associated with persons unable to control their debt situations. The counselors are also trained to refer consumers to other social service agencies and organizations that offer”

“Community financial literacy programs: alliance provides very extensive financial literacy programs to the local community. The activities of this program are grouped into two areas, referred to as the financial literacy outreach program and charlottesaves. Because of our long-standing programs and relationships with many non-profits, our seminars have high attendance together, these two programs, combined with our homeownership activities, provided 168 seminars/workshops, with 4,432 attendees. The financial literacy outreach program is a pro-active attempt to help people avoid the types of financial distress we see in our other counseling programs. We believe that many people who might otherwise have financial difficulties can avoid problems if they had more information. Alliance provides seminars and presentations on budgeting and resources, proper use of credit, income reduction budgeting and similar topics. We work regularly with more than 30 local nonprofit organizations, mostly human service agencies, such as the women's shelter and the county crisis assistance agency, and educational organizations, such as colleges and universities. Most of these organizations host our seminars on a regular basis. Additionally, we have made our resources available to government agencies such as the employment security commission (the unemployed assistance agency) to provide needed financial information to the high number of unemployed, with frequent seminars on budgeting, dealing with income reduction, and working with creditors. The financial literacy outreach program provided 168 free seminars on financial education topics to various organizations. This year we had 4,432 attendees, and distributed 11,565 units of free educational materials to attendees and other parties. Of the attendees, 96% evaluated the presentation as satisfactory. We have developed the majority of the materials distributed in-house over a period of several years, reflecting our experience with assisting many thousands of distressed consumers. Website alliance operates www.knowdebt.org. The web site is intended to supplement the individual counseling sessions, and provide a resource for those in our target areas seeking financial education. The website has a learning section that covers topics such as money recommendations and ways to save, credit reports, consumer credit rights, how to deal with debt, loans and bankruptcy, articles on home mortgages, danger signals for credit card abuse and financial planning to reach worthy goals. We have had very positive feedback from consumers about our website, due to the ease of use and the extent of materials available. Most of our information guides and other educational materials are available for free from an extensive library of pdf files on our website. Additionally, consumers and the general public may request printed copies at no charge.”

“The organization's audit committee consists of the president, the treasurer and the outside cpa board member. These individuals review the audited financial statements before they are issued. These procedures have not changed from the prior year.”