Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired Inc.

“The 990 information is gathered by management. Once the tax return is prepared, management presents it to the board of directors who review it thoroughly and approve it.”

“In connection with any actual or possible conflicts of interest, an interested person must disclose the existence of his or her financial interest and must be given the opportunity to disclose all material facts to the directors and members of committees with board delegated powers considering the proposed transaction or arrangement. After disclosure of the financial interest and all materials facts, and after any discussion with the interested person. He/she shall recues himself/herself from the board or committee meeting while the determination of a conflict of interest is discussed and voted upon. The remaining board or committee members shall decide if a conflict of interest exists. An interested person may make a presentation at the board or committee meeting, but after such presentation, he/she shall leave the meeting during the discussion of, and the vote on, the transaction or arrangement that result in the conflict of interest. The chairperson of the board or committee shall, if appropriate, appoint ad is interested person or committee to investigate alternatives to the proposed transaction or arrangement. After exercising due diligence, the board or committee shall determine whether the corporation 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 board or committee shall determine by a majority vote of the disinterested directors whether the transaction or arrangement is in the corporation's best interest and for its own benefit and whether the transaction is fair and reasonable to the corporation and shall make its decision as to whether to enter into the transaction or arrangement in conformity with such determination.”

“Determined the compensation of the president/ceo is part of the board governance initiatives. The board operations committee is responsible forthe ceo's salary/performance. On an annual basis performance and salary review is conducted. Ceo performance targets are reviewed quarterly. Ceo contract was developed in 2005, revised in 2007 and extended in 2009,2010, 2014 and 2017. Salary and any increase is based upon a review of other leading agencies serving the blind as well as equivalent local and national nonprofits. Cfo: the organization worked with an outside placement firm and considered job duties and market conditions and compensation in other leading agencies as well as equivalent local nonprofits.”

“Financial statements are available upon request. The most current statements and tax document are available under corporate documents on the website. They are also readily available through other websites like charity navigator and guidestar. The board governing documents, the minutes from the board meetings and the notes from board committee meetings are available to our auditors, program monitors and to the national accreditation council for blind and low vision services (nac).”

“Miami lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired consistently demonstrates it is worthy of donors' philanthropic investments. We have received 13 consecutive 4-star ratings, the highest rating possible, from the nation's premier independent nonprofit evaluator charity navigator placing us in the 99th percentile of the over 9,000 charities in the u.s. Rated by charity navigator. We are among the elite 67 charities that have attained perfect scores for financial health as well as accountability & transparency resulting in an overall score of 100. Charity navigator states that organizations achieving this exceptional score execute their missions in a fiscally responsible way while adhering to good governance and other best practices that minimize the chance of unethical activities. Guidestar usa, specializing in reporting on more than 2.5 million us nonprofits, awarded miami lighthouse its 2020 gold seal of transparency. Miami lighthouse has been continuously accredited since 1978, having been first accredited in 1978 by the national accreditation council for blind and low vision services (nac). In 2017, nac accreditation came under the executive management of aer. Accreditation is a value-added process that ensures that consumers (i.e., clients and students) are provided services under quality-based conditions and operations. In november 2019 we received a five-year accreditation from the association for education and rehabilitation of the blind and visually impaired (aer). Additional accreditations include accredited professional preschool learning environment (apple) and department of children and families gold seal quality program. Our center of learning programs span children's ages from early intervention for blind babies; a first-of-its kind in the nation, fully inclusive pre-k (ages one through four) offered by a vision rehabilitation institution with all classes composed of 50% visually impaired and 50% sighted students; as well as kindergarten and first grade for visually impaired students. We collaborate on our educational offerings with early learning coalition, miami-dade county public schools (m-dcps) and the children's trust. At the other end of the age spectrum, we offer adult basic education classes, also in collaboration with m-dcps, including ged and esl classes. Our subsidiary, the florida heiken children's vision program, llc, a blindness prevention program addresses eye health equity for underserved schoolchildren by providing dilated eye examinations and prescription glasses throughout florida at no cost to parents. Our heiken program has received numerous awards for excellence in eye health care for schoolchildren from underserved communities. This incredibly successful program has been cited in optometry: journal of the american optometric association as a national model which other states should adopt. It continues to have documented impact on school performance, and we are committed to addressing the unmet need. Since 2004 our program annual enrollment has increased dramatically (50-fold pre covid) and wise stewardship of our revenue and expenses has enabled us to accommodate this phenomenal growth.”