Cultivate Culinary School and Catering Inc.

“The bylaws established at formation were comprehensively updated and the updates were unanimously approved by all board members. The organization has grown tremendously over the first 5 years and the changes to the bylaws reflected that growth. The updates included adding the role and responsibilities of the Executive Director role; updating the frequency of regular meetings; clarifying who can call special meetings; adding the ability to take an action without a meeting; clarifying board member and officer tenure, elections and responsibilities and adding a Vice President position.”

“All board members and officers receive a copy of the final Form 990 for review prior to its filing. All board members and officers are requested to review and send comments noting approval.”

“The conflict of interest policy is reviewed by the Board of Directors at each annual meeting. To ensure the Corporation operates in a manner consistent with charitable purposes and does not engage in activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status, periodic reviews shall be conducted. If the governing board or committee has reasonable cause to believe a member has failed to disclose actual or possible conflicts of interest, it shall inform the member of the basis for such belief and afford the member an opportunity to explain the alleged failure to disclose. If, after hearing the member's response and after making further investigation as warranted by the circumstances, the governing board or committee determines the member has failed to disclose an actual or possible conflict of interest, it shall take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action.”

“Before approving the compensation of the Executive Director, the Executive Committee shall determine that the total compensation to be provided to the Executive Director and that it is reasonable in amount in light of the position, responsibility and qualification of the Executive Director for the position held, including the result of an evaluation of the Executive Director's prior performance. At the time of the discussion and decision concerning the individual's compensation, the individual should not be present in the meeting. The Board shall obtain and consider appropriate data concerning comparable compensation paid to similar Executive Director in like circumstances. The process and decision are documented in the Executive Committee minutes.”

“A copy of the governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are made available to the public upon request for the same period of disclosure as set forth in the IRC Section 6104(d). The policies are also uploaded to Guidestar and Charity Navigator.”

“Total number of volunteers: Cultivate Culinary School and Catering Inc utilizes a software called Volunteer Local to schedule volunteers. When volunteers arrive, they check in using the software. Volunteer sessions are either two or three hours based on the day of the week. We calculate the hours based on the day of service and the length of the volunteer session. We also have kitchen volunteers. Their hours vary so we use an average time frame for those volunteers.”