Our Financial and Organizational Strength
Lakeside's River Park Conservancy strives to meet the highest standards for nonprofit fiscal management. In 2011 we produced our first Annual Report. Our Annual Report provides the opportunity to showcase our projects and programs, our volunteers, our board members, and financial status. We believe in transparency and are delighted to provide you with our
We are also a member in good standing with the San Diego Foundation's BetterGiving program. BetterGiving is an online database of information used to inform donor giving. It requires that we have a variety of best management practices in place, which guide efficient use of funds, clear accountability for funds spent and a variety of policies in place that increase our operating transparency.
With regards to transparency, we strive to adhere to the guidance offered by the Registration Desk, Registry of Charitable Trusts Attorney General’s office.
"When an organization registers with our office the following documents are made viewable to the public: The form CT-1, Articles of incorporation/association, bylaws, IRS letter of determination and the IRS form 1023/2024. Once an organization is registered their annual renewal reports and IRS form 990’s (if filed) are also available for public viewing. Certain documents considered confidential such as the Schedule B of the IRS form 990 are not open for public viewing, however. As for that the organization chooses to disclose on their own, please contact an attorney for further advice.”
To track our progress over the years, our annual reports provide an overview and a snapshot of a Lakeside's River Park in process.
Our organizational documents, including our IRS Application Package, IRS determination letter, our CA Secretary of State Name Change Amendment, our Articles of Incorporation and our By-laws are included here.
Audit Requirements:
LRPC gets the vast majority of its funds from grants from the State of California, coming from the various propositions.
The State of California works diligently to ensure that no state funds are misspent. The State has an Audit Division in the Controllers Office, which is assigned to audit every single payment the state makes to any organization, business, local government etc.
When LRPC gets a grant from the State, the grant is entered into this process. Additionally, the State pays in arrears meaning that LRPC fronts the money and then the State reimburses LRPC once the Audit Department determines that the invoice requesting payment passes the audit and there are no irregularities. Being a small nonprofit, LRPC is highly motivated to have correct invoices. In each invoice, the State withholds 10% of the repayment. The retention is used as an incentive to ensure that the project closeout and audit meets all the State requirements. An audit is done at the end of the project to cover the entire grant and project. If the project passes the audit, then the 10% retention is released. If the project does not pass the final audit, that money will not be released. Moreover, the State has the ability to exact other forms of sanctions up to requiring that the organization return every penny of the grant should the State find the organization has illegally expended the funds.
LRPC does not know when these audits take place, but we do know that if there is a problem, we will hear from the State quickly.
The State sent a field team to audit us at our office in approximately 2005. They left 3 days early and found no exceptions.
We stand by our record of providing careful, thrifty and documented expenditures in completing our grants.