Conservation Insight

“Board members Kristen R. Faust (President) and Thomas Virzi (Treasurer/Executive Director) are married.”

“This Form 990 was prepared by our Treasurer, Thomas Virzi, who was formerly a certified public accountant with past experience auditing nonprofit organizations and preparing tax returns. The completed Form 990 was then reviewed by all board members and approved for submission before filing with the Internal Revenue Service.”

“The board of directors discusses the conflict of interest policy at the annual board meeting to determine if there were any new conflicts to report at that time.”

“The salary for our Executive Director, Dr. Thomas Virzi, was determined using comparable data and reviewed/approved by the board of directors. Our board president, Kristen R. Faust, abstained from the vote to approve the rate for Dr. Virzi who is her spouse. The salary amount for Dr. Virzi was determined based on the federal General Schedule (GS) payscale for research scientists with a similar level of education and experience; initially determined to be the GS-12 rate for Portland, OR with nominal annual cost of living increases since the organization's inception. Determination of the appropriate GS payscale was made with additional guidance from other professionals working in the scientific research discipline. The payscale for all other key employees is also determined based on the GS payscale and reviewed/approved by the board of directors; key employees are defined here as any full-time professional staff and excludes temporary seasonal staff.”

“We received no requests for our governing documents or tax returns during fiscal 2022.”