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Risk and Compliance

Risk management and compliance are essential to protecting a nonprofit’s mission, reputation, and long-term sustainability. As independent corporations affiliated with ACE National, both the local affiliate and National are responsible for ensuring compliance and risk aware management.

Risk management and compliance for ACE falls into four categories: (1) corporate governance policies that all affiliates are expected to have in place, (2) Required affiliate annual reporting and compliance (3) operational policies that guide local program delivery and must be followed, and (4) recommended best practices and suggested policies that serve as optional resources to support affiliates. This structure allows affiliates to meet essential standards while maintaining flexibility to adapt policies to their size, capacity, and community needs.

A note on Insurance: Affiliates are covered under ACE national insurance policies. To maintain eligibility for this coverage, affiliates must adhere to all required policies, procedures, and compliance standards, including governance policies, operational guidelines, and annual reporting requirements. Failure to meet these requirements may impact an affiliate’s coverage. While insurance policy documents are not publicly distributed, they are available upon request. Click HERE for more on Insurance.

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These are the foundational policies that support legal compliance, ethical conduct, and organizational integrity. They typically align with regulatory expectations and nonprofit best practices, including guidance from entities like the Internal Revenue Service. The annual IRS tax return asks if a corporation has adopted these policies. So, it is important that affiliates officially approve them. Rather than print out the policies, affiliates can direct board members to review the documents at the link mentioned above and then carry a motion to approve the documents at a board meeting.

Required: these are ACE policies that must be adopted by your board

Anti-Bullying Policy
Core Values Policy
Sexual Harassment + Non-Discrimination
Code of Ethics
Document Retention Policy
Whistleblower Policy
Conflict of Interest Policy
Mission Statement + Program Goals

Affiliates must complete annual reporting to ensure ongoing compliance and good standing. This includes filing any required forms with the Internal Revenue Service and meeting reporting obligations tied to the affiliate agreement.

ACE Regional Directors will annually review each affiliate’s adherence to all compliance requirements and report the results to the ACE Board Executive Committee. The following materials will help affiliates ensure compliance.

Annual Compliance Checklist
Summary Chart of Annual Compliance
Affiliate Mentor Liaison
Program Report
Financial Reports
Charitable Registration Renewal (If req by state)
Corporate Filings

These policies guide the day-to-day functioning of the affiliate and ensure consistency, quality, and safety in program delivery. The following must be followed by all affiliates. As a best practice, boards can adopt these policies and have them in the minutes.

Required Operational Policies and Procedures that apply to all affiliates, volunteers, etc.

Parental Consent forms: All new and returning students each year must turn in a signed Parental Consent form to participate in ACE. Affiliates are responsible for ensuring only students who are registered in the database with a signed parent consent attend sessions.

Database Management: Every affiliate is responsible for maintaining in the national database an accurate, up-to-date record of all students, mentors, staff, board members, and other volunteers. Each year in April, the ACE National Office uses the database to determine the number of “active” and “pending” students, mentors, Board members, administrative staff, and other volunteers. Based on this number, ACE’s insurance carrier calculates insurance premiums. Affiliates are billed for their proportionate share of all covered individuals. Only individuals registered as “active” or “pending” in the database are covered under ACE National’s insurance umbrella. (Chapter 7 has more details about ACE’s insurance.)

Mentor Participation Requirement: Mentors are required to register or update their registration every year and complete the mentor training module which is part of the registration process. All adult volunteers/mentors working with students and paid staff persons must be registered in the database have an approved background check every three years/36 months. Additionally, any individual who has access to the ACE database must have an approved background check prior to serving as a volunteer/mentor or paid staff person. Regional Directors will regularly audit affiliate compliance. The full policy can be found here ACE BACKGROUND CHECK POLICY:

The following Policies apply to all affiliates and must be followed. Click each link for the full policy.

Document Retention Policy
Database Personal Information Security Policy
Mission Statement + Program Goals
Sexual Harassment + Non-Discrimination
Anti-Bullying Policy
Transportation of Students Policy
Core Values
Code of Ethics
Conflict of Interest Policy
Affiliate Mentor Liaison
Graphic Standards
AI Guidelines – Affiliates
AI Guidelines – Students
ACE Background Check Policy

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Affiliate Mentor Liaison Policy Handbook

Strengthening mentoring relationships

This handbook’s purpose is to help mentors, team leaders, and affiliate mentor liaisons as they support mentors and strengthen their mentoring relationships with students. Included in this document are succinct summaries of all ACE policies relative to mentoring, some procedures and best practices mentors must follow when working with students, strategies for mentors to use when responding to difficult questions from students, and copies of relevant forms.

Every affiliate must select an individual to serve as an affiliate mentor liaison. Each year the mentor liaison is required to complete ACE’s web-based training based on this Affiliate Mentor Liaison Policy Handbook. This training material can be viewed below.

View the pre recorded training and complete a quick quiz/form:

Training can be viewed HERE
Verification Quiz: HERE

Policy Handbook

Download

Incident Report Form

Download

School Contacts Form

View Slides

Need guidance?

Reach out to your Regional Director or the ACE National Team for support on policies, compliance, or risk management.

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