Sierra Nevada Alliance

“The tax return is prepared by an outside accounting firm. After completion of said returns, the organization is sent a draft of the tax returns to be reviewed and examined. The organization makes copies of the returns and distributes to those individuals charged with governance. Those individuals at that time can review and if applicable discuss any line items in the return with the accountant who has prepared the return. If all items are found to be acceptable, an affidavit is signed to authorize the outside accounting firm to process, sign and provide copies of the returns to be filed with the designated governmental agencies. Before the taxreturns are filed, a final tax return copy is forwarded to all board members. The tax returns are then signed by the organization, stamped with certified return receipt and timely placed in the mail for filing.”

“The board of directors self-enforces their conflict of interest policy and the executive director enforces the conflict of interest policy with all employees.”

“The personnel committee conducts an annual review of the executive director (the only key employee). At the beginning of the performance year the executive director and personnel committee establish performance objectives. At the end of the fiscal year two personnel committee members sit down with the executive director to review performance and the committee provides a review to the director. If merited, the personnel committee can advise the board of directors to raise the salary orcompensation of the executive director. The committee provides the board of directors with a salary survey of sierra or california non-profits for executive directors at the time they provide a recommendation for increase in salary or benefits in order to inform the full board's decision.”

“Governing documents are available for public inspection at the principal place of business. The conflict of interest policy and teh organization's financial statements are available upon request.”

“Since 1993 the sierra nevada alliance has protected and restored sierra lands, water, wildlife and rural communities. Our sustainable sierra communities works to engage and support efforts to adopt exemplary local sustainable community actions across the sierra that balance social, economic and environmental issues to create vibrant local communities providing a high quality of life for their residents and visitors while protecting and stewarding wildlands and natural resources for future generations. Our member group support program helps build the capacity of our member conservation groups through projects such as our sierra nevada americorps partnership (snap). Snap recruits, trains and supports 28 americorps members who serve with partnering groups and agencies to restore sierra watersheds and educate thousands on ways to keep our waters clear, clean and healthy.”

“Climate change program: we worked to create exemplary sustainable regional plans that protect and restore sierra waters, lands, wildlife and ruralcommunities and incorporate climate change adaptation while meeting or exceeding themost aggressive statewide or national greenhouse gas emission reduction legislation.in fy 2013/2014 the program worked with partner groups in tulare and plumas counties to guide the county general plan update in order to protect working landscapes andwildplaces, rural quality of life, and address climate change. We also worked with stakeholders in the tahoe basin to advance a tahoe sustainability collaborative to plan for climate change and create a model sustainability action plan.also convened the sierra water work group to coordinate among sierra integratedregional water management efforts including hosting a regional summit. We providedsupport to the inyo-mono irwmp to engage and support disadvantaged communities. We also issued the monthly sierra resource e-newsletters to educate conservation leadersthroughout the sierra climate, land use and resource planning issues and events”

“Sierra the sustainable sierra communities program: we worked to engage and supportefforts to adopt exemplary local sustainable community actions across the sierra that balance social, economic and environmental issues to create vibrant localcommunities providing a high quality of life for their residents and visitors while protecting and stewarding wildlands and natural resources for future generations. In fiscal year 13/14 we continued our work regional partners to create a model program in implementing river friendly landscaping practices and reduced thousands of poundsof pollution from entering sierra rivers truckee river. With support from a vista americorps member we also implemented a model sustainability project that addressed the indoor home health issues of radon, lead and mold while helping homeowners save money while saving energy and water. The program also issued a case study on successful sustainability efforts as a resource for rural communities and hosted a webinar on how to launch local food movements. This program also helped implementthe annual bike path clean-up. Finally, the program issued a monthly sierra spokes newsletter keeping sierra conservation leaders abreast of sustainability actions happening in the region.”

“Supporting alliance member groups: we expanded the capacity of over 90 member conservation groups by providing resources, networking, information, and trainings. This program includes our sierra nevada americorps partnership (snap). Snap recruited, trained and supported 28 americorps members who served with partnering groups and agencies in 2012 and 2013 to restore sierra watersheds and educate thousands on ways to keep our waters clear, clean and healthy. The 2012 snap program ended having restored 1501 acres of habitat, educated over 15,058 people onenvironmental issues, and recruited and mobilized 3743 volunteers to steward their local watersheds. For 2013, the program interviewed over 200 applicants, selected 36 talented adults to serve for one year, trained the new members and appointed them to over 15 conservation groups and agencies to serve the sierra. The member group support program also hosted in fall 2012 the best conservation conference in the sierra nevada, with inspiring keynote speakers, over ten informative workshops,annual sierra conservation awards, and inspiring updates from our network of conservation groups.”