Washington Community Action Network

“MEMBERS. Washington CAN! has 2 classes of members-- individual members and organizational members. Any individual who expresses an intention to support Washington CAN! by promoting its purposes and programs is eligible to become an individual member and shall qualify for membership upon signing a statement to that effect. An organization that agrees with the mission and purpose of Washington CAN! shall be eligible for membership, subject to review and approval by the Board of Directors. Upon such approval, organizations may join by passing a resolution of agreement and paying dues according to the schedule approved by the Board of Directors, which is a sliding scale based on the organizational member's size and budget.”

“MEMBERSHIP ELECTS THE BOARD. The Board consists of one director from each of Washington CAN!'s organizational members, and a representative number of individual At-large Directors determined by the Board. Individual At-large Directors are elected by the general membership at the annual meeting. The Board's intention is to be representative of the state's gender, ethnic, racial and geographic diversity.”

“DECISIONS RESERVED FOR MEMBERS. Under Washington corporation law, certain important decisions such as certain changes to the governing documents and decisions to merge, consolidate or dissolve require membership approval.”

“990 REVIEW PROCESS. The draft of the 990 is reviewed by the Executive Director, the Finance Director and a long time advisor focused on the public information aspect as well as compliance. It is then reviewed by the Board Finance Committee. When all edits are completed, it is forwarded and presented to the entire Board of Directors. Questions, comments and corrections are strongly encouraged, and the importance and value of Board oversight is emphasized. The Board reviews and approves the 990 for filing. If corrections are made in response to questions from the directors, the final version is emailed to the Board before filing.”

“CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY MONITORING. The conflict of interest policy covers board members, officers, staff and volunteer leaders. It is the responsibility of board members, officers, staff and volunteers to disclose potential conflicts of interest. Determinations of whether a conflict exists and the review of conflicts are made at the Board level. An interested person shall be given the opportunity to disclose to the Board any facts that are material to the arrangement(s) in question. After any discussion with the interested person, s/he shall leave the meeting while the Board discusses whether a possible conflict of interest exists. The remaining board members who are present and who have no financial interest in the arrangement in question shall then determine whether a conflict exists and the best resolution of the arrangement, which typically involves full disclosure to all directors and officers and recusal of that person from any decision from which that person could benefit personally.”

“EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION. In the fall of 2021 WCAN conducted a series of work sessions with the goal of updating and more aligning its wage scales with the current environment based on researching nonprofit job openings in King County. These sessions included managers and directors from every department and board members. From the work sessions, the Director Team, led by the Executive Director and Finance Director, compiled wage scales for each department for further review and discussion. The final proposed wage scales were presented to the Board where they were discussed and approved. The new wage scales were implemented in January 2022. In any case, we are more than confident that Washington CAN along with our affiliated Education and Research Fund 501(c)3 are not exerting upward inbluence on executive compensation given our size, reach and complexity.”

“DISCLOSURE. Although no one requested these documents, Washington CAN! may make financial statements, governing documents and conflict of interest policies available upon request, but we consider each request on a case-by-case basis. If we determine that the request is sincere, we would provide paper copies for pick up or by post. Of course our 990 returns and Form 1024 are made available to anyone upon request.”

“Bad Debt Expense: -18,000.”