Founding and Form
Trusts Founding
The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts were established in January 2017 by their sole Founder, President and Chair, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku — as one part of ongoing work he has carried out for over two decades, leading also to his founding of The Ikoku Foundations. Where appropriate and approved by the Founder, these entities endeavor to coordinate their efforts and resultant benefit to the communities they serve.
Trusts Formation
The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts are formally organized as a private, independent, tax-exempt nonprofit organization, as provided for in the California State Code of the United States, and they are thus registered and headquartered in San Francisco, California. The Trusts are also officially known under the business names, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Trusts. All three names, as used in official The Ikoku Charitable Trusts documents, policies and statements, as well as products, services and sites, refer to the same aforementioned Trusts Corporation entity.
Trusts and Foundations Entities
As provided for under law for nonprofit entities and the Founder’s Declaration of Trust, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts administer, hold and manage the assets for two private charitable foundations, resulting in a three-entity structure that includes the following:
- The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts;
- The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Foundation; and
- The Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku Foundation.
Trusts Areas
As further described in the General Page on Trusts Areas, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts administer, develop and fund philanthropic efforts under the auspices of the Trusts Areas of Public Benefit — which help focus attention, commitment, resources and assessment in the twelve (12) areas below:
Trusts Structure and Mission
The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, via their work with The Ikoku Foundations and through the Trusts Areas, are thus structured to support charitable efforts in the aforementioned areas, and to ultimately fulfill their originating mission to promote philanthropy concerned with Africa, its global diasporas and the betterment of lives across the globe, while, as always, accounting for the past and ensuring a just and shared future.
Governing Structure
Overview
The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations are governed respectively by a Board of Trustees and a set of Advisory Boards of Directors. The basic architecture of the three-board system is defined by the Founder’s Declaration of Trust of The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts and by the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations.
Below are a number of details pertaining to the boards’ relations:
Complementary Boards
Through a set of complementary roles, the three boards carry out the essential fiduciary duties normally associated with a board of trustees, while also ensuring that adequate attention is paid to the quality and progress of planning, policy and operations, and to core contributions toward the Trusts’ and Foundations’ complementary missions and charitable purposes.
Role of Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees is primarily charged with receiving, holding and managing donated assets and other property for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Foundation and The Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku Foundation. The Board of Trustees is also tasked with developing and evaluating long-range strategy, planning and policy, and with approving major budgets and capital projects, overseeing plans for endowment spending and growth, and engaging other non-financial matters of significant and enduring importance. As ex-officio trustees, the President and Treasurer coordinate such affairs of the Board of Trustees with those of the Advisory Boards of Directors of The Ikoku Foundations.
Role of Advisory Board of Directors
Each of The Ikoku Foundations is guided by an Advisory Board of Directors, larger in membership than the Board of Trustees, tasked in part with providing counsel to leadership and trustees on medium-to-long-range strategic directions, priorities, planning and policy. Still, the primary fiduciary duties of each Advisory Board are to the ongoing operations of their respective Ikoku Foundation, and to the fulfillment of the Trusts’ specifying charitable purposes through each Foundation. The Advisory Boards carry out these responsibilities largely through the operation of several committees, chaired by and reporting to Advisory Board members.
Shared Objectives
Together, the three Boards work to ensure the health, vision and perpetuity of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations — led by the President and Chair, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, the Treasurer, Ijeoma Chinwe Ikoku, and the Secretary, Chinyere Ukeagumo Ikoku Jr, who serve as ex-officio members on the three boards.
Core Purposes
Opening
The development of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts is executively governed by its sole Founder and President, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, as well as a set of attendant mission-related core purposes derived from a history of entity establishment further described below:
History and Impetus for Founding
During a period preceding and extending into the formation of The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts, the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, was subject to a set of consistent, extensive, pervasive, dehumanizing and subhumanizing practices — including but not limited to discrimination, harassment, stalking, and unconsented communication, experimentation, monitoring, and spying — that entailed profound violations of the Founder’s basic, fundamental and natural freedoms, liberties and rights, confidentiality and privacy rights, and fundamental autonomy, dignity and humanity accorded and provided to citizens and residents of California, Delaware, the United States, and member states of the United Nations.*
Founding Core Purpose
In response to the above, the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, established and shall further develop The Ikoku Charitable Trusts with the core, express and founding purpose to create, develop, and support communities, institutions, and societies where the above and related practices do not occur and to help other communities, institutions, and societies reduce the occurrence and prevalence of the above and related practices.
Sancthumanism
Such core, express and founding purpose shall also be in response to apparent, historical and sustained failures and limitations of established, present-day and prevailing civics, commerce, education, institutions, politics, public discourse and religion to provide a meaningful moral and ethical basis for ensuring the care, equanimity, recognition, respect, sanctity, sovereignty and spiritual or theological wholeness of human beings in contemporary society. Thus, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, operating as a private foundation, shall do so via the following faith-based commitments and principles:
Attendant Core Purposes
As part of the core, express and founding purposes described above, the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, shall also further develop The Ikoku Charitable Trusts in view of the Founder’s birth into, formation within and further development of a multigenerational, longstanding family commitment to lifelong education and research; as well as in direct response to past, present-day and ongoing infringements of basic, fundamental and natural freedoms, liberties and rights, including the disenfranchisement, forced migration, impoverishment, marginalization, stigmatization, underrepresentation, unethical care and research, and violations of due process, liberty and privacy rights, of varying peoples in Africa, its global diasporas, and culturally and structurally connected societies. The Ikoku Charitable Trusts shall thus have an attendant founding purpose to promote public awareness of, enhance public knowledge of and engage in commerce in and pertaining to Africa, its global diasporas, and its connected or shared societies, as well as foster global interrelationships between Africa and the Americas, Asia, Australasia and Oceania, and Europe.
Incompatibility with Founding
Notwithstanding any provisions of the Codes and Policies of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts or any other applicable documents, guidelines, laws, policies, or equivalent legal instruments, no objectives of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts shall supersede or be of greater benefit, import, or priority than the core, express and founding mission and purposes of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts as defined, described and delineated above. No activities, operations, or other processes of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts shall entail any of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices. Any version of such practices — as well as any accruing of advantage, benefit, or information through such practices, and also any natural or legal persons assisting, employing, permitting, planning, or otherwise conducting or promoting such practices — are by definition incompatible with The Ikoku Charitable Trusts as well as its founding, development, administration, management, and operation. And upon the discovery by any person of such practices or its equivalent, immediate reporting and subsequent remedying shall be conducted to and via Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, the sole Founder and President of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, who shall be the sole person to interpret this and other codes and policies of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and adjudicate the aforementioned and attendant matters.
Examples of Incompatibility
For these reasons, no person or entity may become or remain qualified as board or committee member, director, trustee, officer, executive, manager or other leadership, staff or employee, advisor or consultant, provider of care, of education, of mentorship, or of training, affiliate, partner, representative, recipient of funds or resources, researcher or observer, sponsor, supervisor, volunteer, parental entity, voting or decision-making entity, member or stakeholder, or other agent of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts (including its divisions, series, subsidiaries, affiliates, and partners) if conducting or promoting any of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors, or their equivalent, as well as if in intentional violation of the core, express and founding purposes described above, the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics, or any of the ensuing codes, ethics, policies, protections, and rights provided for by The Ikoku Charitable Trusts concerning confidentiality, consent, privacy, respect, and unconsented care, education, experimentation, monitoring, research, tracking, training, supervision, or surveillance. Due to this stipulation, under no circumstances shall the following persons — as well as any affiliates, associates, collaborators, employees, employers, executives, leaders, members, partners, representatives, staff, volunteers, third parties, and other agents of said persons — qualify:
Example of Natural Person
Example of Natural Person — any natural person who engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes any of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors; who engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes the intentional interference with or violation of the codes, policies, protections, rights, studies, or teachings pertaining to the prevention of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors and especially the Founding Code of Ethics; who engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes the impediment, interference, or diminishment of the Founder’s ability to determine, interpret, and ensure the core, express and founding mission and purposes of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts; and who engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes the impediment, interference, or diminishment of the Founder’s governance over and administration, management, and operation of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and particularly the Founder’s ability to determine and ensure remedies and compliance with the codes, policies, protections rights, studies, or teachings of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts pertaining to the prevention of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors and especially the Founding Code of Ethics. For instance, in this case, Eleanor Marie Brown (AB, Brown; JD, Yale) of Jamaica and the United States of America; Rafael Parera Nadal of Manacor, Mallorca, Spain; and Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro of Funchal, Madeira, Portugal; and Jeff Williams of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
Example of Legal Person
Example of Legal Person — any legal person that engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters or promotes any of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors; that engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes the intentional interference with or violation of the codes, policies, protections rights, studies, or teachings pertaining to the prevention of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors and especially the Founding Code of Ethics; that engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes the impediment, interference, or diminishment of the Founder’s ability to determine, interpret, and ensure the core, express and founding mission and purposes of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts; and that engages in, aids in, or otherwise encourages, fosters, or promotes the impediment, interference, or diminishment of the Founder’s governance over and administration, management, and operation of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and particularly the Founder’s ability to determine and ensure remedies and compliance with the codes, policies, protections rights, studies, or teachings of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts pertaining to the prevention of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, or behaviors and especially the Founding Code of Ethics. For instance, in this case, Leland Stanford Jr University of Palo Alto, California, United States of America; The New York Times Company of New York City, New York, United States of America; and The United States Tennis Association of White Plains, New York, United States of America.
Example of Government Person
Example of Government Person — as well as, additionally, for related ethics, governance, policies and protections reasons — any government or political person, including but not limited to any political party or organization, any government or public authority, entity, office, official or other agent, and any person who has held such authority, office, position or equivalent capacity, function or relationship within the preceding ten (10) years. For instance, in this case, Barack Hussein Obama (AB, Columbia; JD, Harvard) of Honolulu, Hawaii and Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
Beneficiaries, Communities, Publics
To further clarify, with respect to The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, and especially its mission and purposes, Codes and Policies, and all other documentation and writing pertaining to its administration, governance, management, and operation, the terms “beneficiaries,” “communities,” “publics” and their equivalent (such as natural and legal persons and people employed, funded or served by The Ikoku Charitable Trusts) shall be limited to and include only persons who do not, in any way, engage in any of the aforementioned dehumanizing or subhumanizing practices and their attendant actions, activities, behaviors, or their equivalent, and furthermore those who accord persons equal and full enjoyment of basic principles derived from a robustly ethical and humane respect for the confidentiality and privacy of human beings — including but not limited to principles defined and delineated in the Codes and Policies — namely:
Basic Refusal to be Means or Medium
In light, therefore, of the aforementioned, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, do not and shall not, in any way or under any circumstances, agree, consent, or otherwise give license or permission to have any aspect of the Founder’s person — especially activities or functions of the body and mind such as cognizing, perceiving, or thinking, and also talking by, to or with oneself — accessed or otherwise engaged via any activity, in any manner or way, via any means or method, and for any benefit, end, goal, interest, mission, objective, purpose, or equivalent.
— Additionally, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, do not and shall not, in any way or under any circumstances, agree, consent, or otherwise give license or permission to have any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of either The Ikoku Charitable Trusts or the Founder accessed or otherwise engaged via any activity, in any manner or way and via any means or method such that the Founder’s person, or any natural person, becomes a means or medium for any benefit, end, goal, interest, mission, objective, purpose, or equivalent.
— This basic refusal and its principle — at once human and humane — shall, wherever there is conflict or question, legally supersede any conflicting provision or interpretation of any alleged, assumed, interpreted, presumed or otherwise made or understood agreement, consent, contract, law, license, permission, principle, regulation, right, or equivalent. The Founder shall, at the very least, enjoy the highest level of this principle and its protections that The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, the Codes and Polices, and applicable law and regulation provide.
Concluding
And furthermore, by engaging in any activity engaging, involving, referring to, relating to, or otherwise pertaining to The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of the divisions, series, subsidiaries, or affiliates, as well as any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of the Products or Services, you accept and agree to the statements, terms, conditions, and requirements described above and in the Codes and Policies, regarding the Founding and Governance of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, in their entirety without modification, including as updated from time to time by the Founder, and you further accept and agree to fully inform the Founder in writing of any knowledge you have regarding the above and related activities and history.
Founding and Governing Documents
Provision
Provided below is a listing of — and where applicable, access to — documents pertaining to The Ikoku Charitable Trusts’ founding and governance that are kept current in the Books and Records, including those of formation, licensing and governing codes and policies. All such documents are in the safekeeping of the Founder and President, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, who is the only person authorized to retain, amend, keep current and show originals and copies. Where appropriate, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts may provide the public with a link to access approved and downloadable copies of such documents.
Articles of Incorporation
ByLaws
2019 Amended and Restated ByLaws of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2018 Amended and Restated ByLaws of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2017 ByLaws of The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
Codes and Policies
Codes and Policies (HTML)
Declaration of Trust
2019 Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2018 Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2017 Declaration of Trust for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
Letters of Tax Exemption
2018 CA State Tax-Exemption Letter for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2018 US IRS Tax-Exemption Letter for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
Registration of Charity
Statement of Information
Tax Filings (Federal)
2019 US IRS Tax Filing 990 PF for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2018 US IRS Tax Filing 990 PF for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
2017 US IRS Tax Filing 990 PF for The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts
Also at The Trusts
As stated earlier, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts is dedicated to fostering philanthropy and good works concerning Africa, its global diasporas and a range of shared societies — toward the betterment of lives across the globe. And so in accordance with the above, The Trusts provides the following:
A Nonprofit Dedicated to Africa
An independent, private, non-profit organization that serves the public interest in Africa and its global diasporas — by advancing education and research and by also supporting creative ideas, civic endeavors and emerging communities, organizations and societies.
Support for a Global and Just Future
A founding mission and ongoing emphases of support for good works that help the public understand Africa’s essential place in a global future, one that is to be more knowledgeable, environmentally sustainable, equitable and of benefit across communities in just societies.
A Vision of the Public Good
A vision of the public good that accounts for the past while ensuring a just and shared future. That draws inspiration from peoples who, despite a history of systemic difficulties, maintain an unyielding belief that the betterment of their human condition will foster the betterment of those living around them and will enhance the present and futures of the regularly disenfranchised, marginalized and underserved.