Make a Wish Foundation of Eastern North Carolina Inc.

“The board of directors has delegated the primary review of the form 990 to the finance committee. The organization's chief financial officer worked closely with an outside accounting firm to prepare and ensure accuracy of the form 990. The form 990 was reviewed by the chief executive officer prior to it being provided to the finance committee. The finance committee reviewed the form 990 prior to recommending approval and providing it to the board of directors. Each member of the board of directors was provided with a complete copy of the form 990 prior to filing with the internal revenue service.”

“The organization adopted a "statement of values, code of ethics and conflict of interest policy" with which all officers, directors, employees and volunteers are required to comply and acknowledge by signing, upon their initial involvement with the organization and annually thereafter, an "annual conflict of interest and ethics assurance statement"(the"coi statement'). The coi statement requires officers, directors and key employees to disclose the existence of any family and/or business relationships they may have with other officers, directors or key employees of the organization. The ceo of the chapter is charged with ensuring the coi statement and addendum are signed each year by directors, officers and key employees. Review of the statements is monitored by the ceo if any covered person discloses a potential or actual conflict, the following procedure is followed (1) the conflicting interest is fully disclosed to the board, (2) the covered person responds to any factual questions from the board related to the disclosed conflict, and (3) the board, without the covered person, discusses the conflict and approves or disapproves the proposed transaction.”

“The executive committee of the board, comprised solely of independent directors, none of whom have a conflict of interest with respect to the compensation arrangement, was accountable for setting a reasonable compensation package for the ceo. The executive committee also developed, consistent with the organization's philosophy and principles, the annual performance goals and criteria to be used in determining variable compensation criteria for officers and other employees. In addition, the organization retained a consultant to review, analyze and provide benchmarking data for the total compensation and benefits packages of officers and other employees. Appropriate comparability data was obtained from the consultant, i.e., total economic benefits paid by similarly situated organizations (both taxable and tax-exempt) for similar job responsibilities. The organization also gathered benchmarking data relevant to officers and other employees from comparable national nonprofit organizations and the overall market place. The boards discussions and decisions were contemporaneously documented, including the terms of transaction and the date approved, the members of committee present for the deliberations and who voted, and the description of the comparability data obtained and how it was obtained.”

“While federal tax laws do not mandate that the organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements be made available for public inspection, the financial statements and most current 990 return are available on the chapter's website and the organization makes all other documents available upon request.”

“The make-a-wish foundation of eastern north carolina grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.”

“Philanthropy,voluntarism & grantmaking programs. The mission of the make-a-wish foundation is to grant wishes to children with life threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. As of 8/31/2014, 2,861 wishes have been granted to children within eastern north carolina. For the fiscal year ending august 31, 2014, the chapter had 121 children qualified and waiting for a wish. Total cost of wishes granted for the fiscal year were $1,550,363. Of this amount, $143,771 was contributed by various vendors who provided in-kind contributions such as travel and travel services, transportation, lodging, and other services and use of facilities to complete a child's wish. For financial statement purposes, these amounts are included as contribution revenue and granted wish expense. For form 990, however, the irs requires that contributed services and use of facilities be excluded from both revenue and expense.”