Southern Appalachian Ronald Mcdonald House Charities Inc.

“The board of directors reviews the form 990, along with the annual audit, prior to submission of the form 990.”

“The conflict of interest for the organization is consistently monitored and enforced. The conflict of interest is in place so that all board members, staff and volunteers scrupulously avoid conflict of interest of the house on one hand, and personal, professional and business interests on the other. This includes avoiding potential and actual conflicts in interest, as well as perceptions of conflicts of interest. Before opportunities and issues are presented to the board, board members are asked if a conflict exists or a potential for conflict exists for any one present. If a conflict exists or the potential of a conflict, they are asked to leave the room for the discussion and not permitted to vote in the question. The board minutes reflect the board member names that left the room for the discussion and vote. The minutes reflect we abide by the conflict of interest in place for the charities.”

“The charities has a benefits committee that determines the increases provided to employees. This committee is responsible for benchmarking the executive director every 3 years to assure that the qualifications and compensation are similar for a comparable position in a similar organization. The executive director benchmarks all other employees of the charities and reports the information to the benefits committee. Salary increases are based on input from the finance committee, benefits committee, and results of evaluations of each employee. All employees are evaluated annually on their anniversary date of hire and benchmarked every three years. All employees were benchmarked in 2011. The administrative assistant job was benchmarked in october 2013, and the assitant director was benchmarked in december 2013 due to job vacancies being filled. The last evaluation for the executive director was february 2013.”

“SEE NOTE FOR LINE 15A.”

“Form 1023 is available upon request, form 990 is available on the organization's website.”

“Available upon request at the street address”

“Continue to use the house the most: southwest virginia 55% northeast tennessee 28% eastern kentucky 9% misc states 8% the house is 14,000 sq. Feet, has 10 bedrooms/private baths for families, with a kitchen, laundry, tv rooms and play areas as common areas shared by all guest families. Evening meals are provided by church groups, civic organizations, fraternal groups, families/friends or restaurants at least 28 out of 30 days. Breakfast and lunch foods are available for families to prepare at their leisure. Children and families of seriously ill children receiving medical care in a hospital setting are eligible to stay as guests at the house. A child must be a dependent of the parent(s), 21 years or younger. Families living the greatest distance from the hospital providing medical care for the child are given priority in staying at the house. A critically ill child or one in imminent danger of death receives priority regardless of distance. A nightly contribution of 10 is requested. However, no one is ever turned away because of the inability to make the suggested contribution. In 2014, the average nightly contribution was 2.00 and the average length of stay for a family was 8 days. The house provided 1,711 nights and received 3,430.00 through contributions from guest families. The suggested contribution of 10 helps to defray the full cost of 79/night to provide services for families who stay at the house. If the house had not been available for families their out of pocket expense would have been 221,023 (motel, food, gas, laundry, miscellaneous items). The board of directors of the charities is responsible for raising the funds to meet the budgetary needs of the house each year. The charities is dependent on fundraising events and donations to provide services for children and families of seriously ill children at the house. House sponsored fundraising events include: hearts for the house, st. Patrick's day bash, and the tennessee golf classic. Various organizations, groups and mcdonald's restaurants throughout the service area hold fundraising events to benefit the house as well. In-kind donations from the community range from canned goods, paper products, fresh vegetables, home-made breads, muffins to someone providing yard work, professional cleaning, clerical assistance, cleaning the kitchen, mopping floors, replacing smoke detectors, replacing filters on heating/ac units and monthly checks of the fire extinguishers. These generous in-kind donations help defray the cost of providing services and we are better able to provide for the children and families of children who find a safe haven at our house. There is a staff of 4 full-time employees and 8 part-time employees. Volunteers are essential to the operations of the house. Volunteers clean rooms, wash linens/towels/wash cloths, mop floors, run the vacuum, clean windows, bake cakes/cookies, register/check-out families, and help with fundraising events. Volunteers do whatever needs to be done to keep the house clean and inviting for our guest families. In 2014, we had 827 volunteers contribute 8,128 hours to the house for a value of 179,954. The southern appalachian ronald mcdonald house continues to be a haven for children and families of seriously ill children. The staff and volunteers provide a loving, supportive atmosphere with most of the needs of daily living provided. The guest families staying in the house become one big family sharing and nurturing each other through the good as well as the bad times. While we cannot provide all the amenities of home we can provide families with as much normalcy as possible during a difficult time; thus allowing families and siblings the opportunity to be together and be close to the sick child in the hospital. Evaluations for the house and staff by guest families continue to show what a blessing and a need is met by the southern appalachian ronald mcdonald house during a time of crisis with a child. We continue to meet our miss”