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 members size and budget.”

“MEMBERSHIP ELECTS THE BOARD. The Board consists of one director from each of Washington CANs 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 Boards intention is to be representative of the states 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 peer reviewer of the preparer. 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 arrangements 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.”

“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.”

“Program Service Expenses 75,902, Grants and allocations 0, Revenue 0 MASS LIBERATION. In 2020, WCAN was victorious in passing SB 6164 concerning prosecutorial discretion to seek resentencing. SB 6164 created a new procedure for prosecutors to petition a sentencing court to resentence an individual previouly convicted and already sentenced for a felony if the original sentence no longer serves the interest of justice. In 2022, mass liberation was a key issue for WCAN members in Pierce County. In addition to supporting several pieces of mass liberation focused legislation, WCAN, led by Pierce County members, sought to bring awareness to the impact the lack of SB 6164s use has on families with incarcerated loved ones. WCAN organized a direct action in April against Prosecutor Mary Robnett and the Pierce County Court attended by 54 community members, and delivered the demand to request reduced sentences for individuals whose sentences no longer serve the interests of justice.”

“JOINT COSTS. The numbers here are so large because they include the variety of costs associated with our field door to door and phone canvasses. We do not allocate these costs using SOP 98-2 because we believe it would distort the reality of the quality of conversations our staff are able to have with members and the public about important policy issues. Our field and phone canvasses allow us to have what all research shows is the single most effective form of communication, namely person-to-person contact, with our supporters and members, and update them on our program, educate them on issues, answer questions, and encourage them to become active members, not to merely raise money. Although the field and phone canvasses do raise money, this fundraising strategy was chosen because programmatically a broad mass-membership base is vital to maintain WCANs accountability to low and moderate income people as well as for our strength, power and credibility with policy.”

“OTHER CHANGES TO NET ASSETS. Transfer of sponsored programs net assets to new sponsoring organization.”

“AUDIT COMMITTEE. The Board serves as the Audit Committee. The Board President was interviewed by the Auditor as part of the audit process. At the conclusion of the Audit, the Auditor met with the Board to review and discuss the Audit together.”