Oregon State Public Interest Research Group

“The organization provides a draft 990 to all board members. Executive director and administrator review in detail.”

“The organization requires the board members and key employees to sign a conflict of interest policy at the beginning of each fiscal year and report any subsequent conflicts that may arise during the year.”

“The compensation committee will establish acceptable compensation packages after reviewing at least one of the following: 1) information about compensation paid by similarly situated tax-exempt organizations for similar services; 2) current compensation surveys compiled by independent firms; or 3) actual written offers from similarly situated organizations.”

“The compensation committee will establish acceptable compensation packages after reviewing at least one of the following: 1) information about compensation paid by similarly situated tax-exempt organizations for similar services; 2) current compensation surveys compiled by independent firms; or 3) actual written offers from similarly situated organizations.”

“The organization's form 990 and exempt applications are kept in our office and are available to the public upon request.”

“Ospirg takes on powerful interests on behalf of oregon's citizens, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. With an experienced network of researchers, advocates, organizers and volunteers across the state, we stand up to powerful interests on issues to make health care affordable, protect consumers from marketplace abuses, fight political corruption, and boost civic participation.”

“Meanwhile, we also launched a campaign of doctors, farmers and tens of thousands of consumers to press state lawmakers to curtail the overuse of antibiotics on oregon's factory farms, winning the support of a key legislative panel and setting the stage for progress on the issue in the coming years. 2. Making health care work for oregon as the cost of insuring an average family of four hit 20,000 a year, according to one estimate, another recent study confirmed that at least 30% of all health care spending is wasted on unnecessary procedures and inefficiency. Ospirg is working to ensure that the health care industry does more to cut unnecessary waste and focus on preventive care that gets results, rather than passing the costs of this waste onto consumers. In partnership with ospirg foundation, we continued alerting ospirg members and the public at large to significant health insurance rate hike proposals, using ospirg foundation research to inform those efforts. In april, we also organized over two thousand oregonians to contact state officials about a number of requests by insurers to hike premiums. Since 2010, additional scrutiny by state officials has cut over 180 million in waste from health insurance premiums for individuals and small businesses. In addition, ospirg launched our "post the price, please" campaign, aimed at passing a state law requiring hospitals to publicly disclose their prices to consumers. The proposal won support from a variety of consumer and health advocacy organizations, received favorable attention from the news media and a hearing from a key panel of lawmakers. Lobbyists from the health care industry opposed the measure, and state lawmakers adjourned without taking action on the proposal. We intend to continue pressing this issue. 3. Wall street reform in its fourth year, the new consumer financial protection bureau (cfpb) demonstrated the positive impact that a full time federal consumer watchdog can have for consumers who are misled or cheated by the financial industry. Congress created the cfpb in 2010, after an epic battle between wall street banks and consumer advocates, including ospirg and our federation of pirgs in 23 states. To date, the cfpb has provided billions of dollars in relief for consumers harmed by illegal practices, and instituted numerous marketplace changes to help consumers avoid getting ripped off. With success comes a backlash from the banking industry, who worked hard to try and defang the new agency. Ospirg's federal consumer program ed mierzwinski worked with our national coalition to successfully fight back these efforts - for now. 4. Protecting oregon consumers for the 29th year, ospirg released our annual "trouble in toyland" toy safety report, to coincide with black friday shopping. In addition, ospirg's renters' handbook marked its 42th anniversary this year. Since ospirg student volunteers produced the first edition in 1973, the handbook has provided hard-to-find information about how to keep a security deposit, get that toilet fixed, deal with a difficult landlord and more. Today, the handbook is available online for free on ospirg's website, and was viewed by thousands last year. Ospirg also produced tips and resources on a variety of other consumer topics, including our car loan checklist, guide to online privacy, guide to cell phone plans, student aid 101, managing credit, and more. We also ran consumer education classes on how to buy health insurance and avoiding debt for young people.”

“Consultant 9,793 29,377 0 citizen outreach program 470,946 0 261,497”