Upward Unlimited

“The Organization's top management official and top financial official each review the Form 990 prior to its filing with the IRS. A copy of the final Form 990 is also provided to the voting members of the Organization's governing body prior to its filing with the IRS.”

“The Organization's conflict of interest policy is distributed to each member of the Organization's governing body, its officers and its key employees on an annual basis. Each such individual provides an annual disclosure statement indicating that they have received, read, understood and agreed to comply with the policy, certifying that: (1) they have no relationships or interests that present a conflict of interest, (2) they have one or more conflicts of interest that have been fully disclosed as required by the policy and have been properly administered in conformity with the policy, or (3) they have previously undisclosed conflicts of interest and disclosing the details of such conflicts. Any disclosure statements with previously undisclosed conflicts of interest are forwarded to appropriate Organization officials to take appropriate actions as required by the policy.”

“The Organization has adopted an executive compensation-setting policy applicable to all of the Organization's key executives, including the Organization's CEO, officers and key employees. Under the policy, an independent committee of the Board of Directors annually reviews and approves the compensation levels of all individuals subject to the policy. The deliberations and decisions of the committee are contemporaneously substantiated. The committee utilizes comparability data in its deliberations; updated comparability data is generally obtained every two years.”

“The Organization's audited financial statements are made available to the public on the Organization's website: www.upward.org. The Organization provides, upon request, copies of its Articles of Incorporation, bylaws, and conflict of interest policy.”

“Program sales revenue is reported net of cost of goods sold to inform the Form 990 reader of the expenses directly related to the activity. Consequently, both revenue on Part VIII and program expenses on Part IX are understated in comparison to the audited financial statements to reflect this reporting. If cost of goods sold were removed from Part VIII, Line 10b, both gross revenue and program expenses would increase by $6,471,219. Additionally, the percentage of program expenses to total expenses reported on Part IX, Line 25 would be 88.58%.”

“The Organization's Board of Directors, or a committee thereof, assumes responsibility for the oversight of the audit of its financial statements and the selection of an independent accountant. This process has not changed from the prior year.”