Foundation for Advancing Veterans Health Research Inc.

“The organization made significant changes to the organizational documents which include amended by-laws. These changes included the addition of an attendance policy, va employees may be appointed by the board to serve in his/her capacity, a conflict of interest requirement and removed the research committee of the board.”

“The form 990 is reviewed by the full board prior to filing.”

“Certification timeframe: the standardized disclosure questionnaire must be completeed by the board member upon their association with the foundation. In addition, the questionnaire is updated annually and when changed circumstances present a potential conflict. Certifications: disclosure questionnaires require disclosure of potential conflict of interest and certification of awareness of requirement to promptly and fully disclose, in writing, the circumstances of any future potential conflict of interest. Conflict review: identified areas of potential conflict of interest are presented to the board for review and a determination is made whether conflict exists or not. Management of conflicts: upon determination of a conflict of interest, the board will establish or review its procedures for managing the conflict. Management will ensure the individual is not present during board discussion of the issue(s) and is not permitted to vote on the issue(s).”

“Cost of living increases: when the employees approved compensation determination includes an annual cost of living increase without further written action, these changes will be made at the same time and rate as the federal employee cost-of-living change announced in january. Changes in ceo/executive director salary, other than cost of living changes will involve the following: [a] conducting a salary comparability survey: (1) type of positions to be surveyed: executive directors of non-profit corporations authorized by congress to support research activities at va medical centers. (2) basis for selecting these positions for comparison: all foundations are regulated by congress and the department of veterans affairs and have the same guidelines and requirements. Mission of each is the same with similar type activities and duties. (3) foundations to be compared: using a ranking of foundations by gross revenue. Five or six foundations above the foundation for advancing veterans' health research (favhr) and five or six foundations below the favhr will be selected for comparison. (4) basis for selecting these foundations for comparison: to ensure a similar volume of activities, similar revenues are compared. (5) source of information: irs for 990s, available on the internet, contain executive director salaries. (6) equalizing time commitments: part-time salaries will be equated to full-time salaries for comparison purposes. (7) adjusting for different cost of living areas: the federal employees cost of living standards will be applied to the different salaries to equalize. Current federal salary scales for the different areas of the country are available on the opm website. After determining the ratios for each area, the salaries will be adjusted for comparison. [b] the results of the comparability survey, to include institution, revenue, salaries before adjustment, and cost of living adjusted salaries, will be provided to the board designee to review for salary appropriateness and any salary adjustments. [c] written documentation of any compensation change approval will be maintained in the employee file after signature by the board chair. The compensation survey documentation will be kept with the compensation change document. When compensation for a new employee is being established, all benefit areas will be identified on the employee compensation document, such as health insurance, retirement contributions, other insurance, educational assistance, other allowances or services. When the compensation established includes an annual cost of living increase, compensation shall be reviewed every three years. If the approved compensation does not include cost of living increases, the compensation shall be reviewed every two years. The last comparison for the executive director was completed in july 2015.”

“The foundation will make its 1023 and 990 available for public inspection on an "upon request" basis. A copy will be provided of any 990 for the previous three years that is not already available to the public on the guidestar website. Requests made to the foundation office will be referred to the executive director for action. Other documents - the foundation will also provide upon request. Copies of governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements requests received by the foundation officer will be referred to the executive director for action.”

“The majority of voting members, as of december 31, 2016, were compensated by the south texas veterans health care system, a related organization that the organization operates in conjuction with.”