Oklahoma City National Memorial

“A copy of the form 990 is made available to the governing body prior to the filing of the return.”

“Each trustee and employee of the foundation is required to fill out a conflicts of interest and confidentiality statement each year. These statements accurately describe any conflicts of interest that exist and require the signer to notify the board of trustees immediately if any conflicts arise during the year.”

“The foundation's executive committee and chairman review all management and staff salaries annually. Comparable data and informal salary surveys are used to set salaries.”

“The foundation does not currently make governing documents, conflicts of interest policy, or financial statements available to the public. Requests for any of these items would be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

“"we come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity." this is the preamble to the oklahoma city national memorial foundation's mission statement adopted march 26, 1996. The mission statement drives all work of the foundation including design of the outdoor symbolic memorial, memorial museum exhibits, education and outreach programs, collections, operations, administration and governance. The foundation's primary exempt purposes are remembrance and education. Remembrance is accomplished by the foundation in many ways. The outdoor symbolic memorial includes 168 glass, stone and bronze chairs etched with the name of each person who lost their life as a result of the bombing. The survivor tree bears witness to the violence of april 19, 1995, and now stands as a profound symbol of human resilience. The fence bordering the west side of the memorial is a place where visitors can leave their tokens of remebrance and hope. The survivor wall on the east side of the memorial lists the names and honors those who survived the terrible incident. The rescuers orchard is an army of fruit and flower-bearing trees that surrounds and protects the survivor tree, much like the people who rushed to help after the bombing. The outdoor symbolic memorial also has a special area for children that includes a wall of hand-painted tiles sent to oklahoma city by children as expressions of encouragement and caring. A series of chalkboards embedded in the ground allow children to share their feelings and sentiments of hope - an important component of the healing process. The memorial museum includes many components of remembrance including the gallery of honor housing shadow boxes with photos of those who lost their lives. Many of the boxes also include items special to those who died. Oral histories are captured on videos and interactive computers in the museum: first person accounts by those who survived the terror, lost a loved one or came from near and far to help within minutes after the bomb exploded. The only existing audio recording of the bomb explosion plays in one area of the museum so that visitors get a very real sense of the terror of april 19, 1995. The primary goal of the foundation's education and outreach programs is to show the impact of violence and to underscore the senselessness of using violence as a means to solve a problem. Programs also teach that the world holds much more good than bad. The foundation has developed education and outreach materials and programs for use by schools, civic organizations and other groups as well as the general public. Programs include: - student essay contest open to students across the globe for young people grades 5 through 12, national symposiums, first person stories of hope told by family members, survivors and rescue workers who share their remarkable stories of how they transformed tragedy into hope after april 19, 1995. - the hope trunk - an offering of positive education includes traveling trunks filled with artifacts from the memorial archives as well as exercises and lessons to supplement core curriculum while teaching the lessons of april 19, 1995. - inasmuch uncover-discover lab integrates stem concepts with history in a highly interactive environment to teach lessons learned from the oklahoma city bombing. Since the museum opened in february 2001, the memorial has concentrated on developing and expanding education and outreach programs, institutional planning and securing the financial future of the memorial. The foundation completed an 18-month, $10 million renovation and enhancement in january of 2015. The renovations and enhancements included the entire 50,000 square feet of the museum with the addition of a new glass balcony overlooking the memorial, new exhibits, artifacts, videos and interactives and expanded archive space”