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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:

  1. The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts;
  2. The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Foundation; and
  3. 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 guided by the sole Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, as well as a set of attendant mission-related core purposes derived from a history of Trusts 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.

Harassment and Surveillance
Several of such practices condoned, encouraged and entailed the public, vigilante and wanton harassment, spying, stalking, surveillance, and unconsented tracking of the Founder.
Unconsented Exhibition and Experimentation
Several of such practices condoned, encouraged and entailed the demeaning, harmful, nonbenign, public and unconsented exhibition of and experimentation upon the Founder.
Unconsented Care, Communication, Research, Training
Several of such practices condoned, encouraged and entailed the demeaning, harmful, nonbenign, public and unconsented yet supposed care, communication, education, research and training of, on and with the Founder.
Denial of Consent, Due Process and Liberty Rights
Several of such practices insisted on the denial of the Founder’s rights to consent, rights to due process, and rights to liberty.
Denial of Private Property and Private Work Rights
Several of such practices insisted on the denial of the Founder’s rights to private property (real and intellectual), rights to private ownership, and rights to private, uncoerced and unindentured labor and work, including the discriminatory and false insistence that such property and work of Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku and of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and its series, divisions, subsidiaries, and affiliates are public or communal, are public or communal property, are under public or communal control or supervision, and belong to the public or any collective.
Denial of Private Control Rights
Several of such practices further insisted on the denial of the Founder’s rights to private control of property (real and intellectual), of labor and work, of development and employment of ideas, and of the results of the aforementioned, including the condoning of, planning for, and reliance on practices of counterfeiting, fraud, hacking, identity theft, piracy, and equivalently confusing and fraudulent activities. Such practices entailed falsely presenting to other persons alternative versions of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts including its series, divisions, subsidiaries, and affiliates as entities executively administered, governed, managed, operated and otherwise directed or supervised by any person other than Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, the sole Founder and President of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts. Such practices also entailed falsely presenting alternative versions of the goods, products, services, sites, and other offerings of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts as entities executively administered, governed, managed, operated and otherwise directed or supervised by any person other than Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, the sole Founder and President of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts. And such practices also entailed falsely posing as though other persons, beyond Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, the sole Founder and President of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, have or deserve executive control, decision-making, governance, policy-making, rules-making and any other administrative, management, operations, supervision or directorship powers or rights pertaining to The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, any of its goods, products, services, sites and other offerings, and any of its series, divisions, subsidiaries and affiliates.
Denial of Confidentiality and Privacy Rights
Several of such practices consistently and pervasively insisted on the denial of the Founder’s rights to confidentiality and privacy, including but not limited to the practice of spying and unconsented monitoring, recording, and transmission.
Denial of Private Life
Several of such practices consistently, pervasively and literally insisted on the denial of the Founder’s basic, fundamental and human right to a private life, including to any private emotion, feeling, idea, moment, or thought.
Denial of Freedom of Thought
Several of such practices consistently, pervasively and literally insisted on the denial of the Founder’s basic, fundamental and human rights to freedom of thought, to privacy of thought, including to thinking without detection or recording, and to privacy of personal and private speech.
Denial of Autonomy, Dignity and Humanity
Several of such practices thus consistently, pervasively and literally insisted on the denial of the Founder’s basic rights to enjoy the degree, level, and quality of autonomy, dignity, humanity, and humanness provided to citizens and residents of California, Delaware, the United States, and member states of the United Nations.
Discriminatory Dissemination and Withholding of Information
Several of such practices also consistently and pervasively insisted on the withholding of basic, fundamental and necessary information from the Founder regarding the above, and thus insisted on the denial of basic, fundamental and necessary understanding of one’s circumstances needed as a basis for consent, decision-making, and the subsequent seeking, obtaining, and provision of basic, civil, fundamental and human rights. Such withholding of information occurred and was consistently and pervasively sustained while providing other persons, including those in business, education, government, and the general public, an excess surfeit of information regarding the Founder and broad access to means of conducting profound violations of the Founder’s basic, fundamental and natural freedoms, liberties and rights, confidentiality and privacy rights, and fundamental autonomy, dignity and humanity as described above.
Collusion, Targeting, Meaningfulness, Conditions
Several of the above practices also entailed collusive behavior with effects that include, but are not limited to, the consistent, extensive, pervasive and knowing targeting of the Founder and the Founder’s activities and movements, affairs and assets, companies and entities, plans, projects, properties and other aspects and pursuits of his life; the consistent, extensive, pervasive and knowing denial of meaningful consent or volition for the Founder; the consistent, extensive, pervasive and knowing denial of meaningful confidentiality and meaningful expectation of confidentiality for the Founder; the consistent, extensive, pervasive and knowing denial of meaningful privacy and meaningful expectation of privacy for the Founder; and the consistent, extensive, pervasive and knowing insistence that the aforementioned practices be the conditions of employment, investment, mentoring or supervision, ownership, partaking of commerce and services, work as well as living and life where they are not the conditions of employment, investment, mentoring or supervision, ownership, partaking of commerce and services, work as well as living and life for other entities and persons — including within equivalent departments, fields, industries, institutions, occupations, positions, and professions — as well as for citizens and residents of California, Delaware, the United States, and member states of the United Nations.
Discrimination Based on Difference
And several of such practices brought to the fore the place and function of human and perceived difference (including those pertaining to birth and citizenship, culture, ethnicity, gender, race, and sex) in the insistence on the above denials, sustained harassment, targeting, and ultimately discrimination as well as in their continuation via the imposition of ad-hoc, nontransparent, unconsented, uninformed and unregulated processes of voting on and competing, gaming, sporting, and toying with the Founder and with the Founder’s affairs, life, privacy, and property and via the assertion of scapegoating, targeting and vigilante collective action or will.

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.

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, politics, public debate 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. And thus The Ikoku Charitable Trusts shall also advance, develop, practice as well as teach and offer to others a contemporary humanism as defined and interpreted by the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku — namely, the moral ethics, principles, and tenets of humanity, humanness, human autonomy and dignity, human recognition and reciprocity, human equality in basic, fundamental and natural freedoms, liberties and rights, and thus human equanimity and humane co-existence, each of which shall be grounded in the study of, inquiry into, revelation in, and elucidation from comparative human disciplines and societies, particularly comparative ecumenism, religion, spirituality and theology, the arts, the humanities, the human sciences, theory and the application of knowledge as practice in civics, culture, law, medicine, politics, and technology.

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 serve the public benefit of Africa, its global diasporas, and its connected or shared societies.

Incompatibility with Founding

Notwithstanding any provisions of 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. And 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 of such practices, reporting to, remedies to, and subsequent remedying with the Founder as well as The Ikoku Charitable Trusts shall be conducted and sought immediately.

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 of Jamaica and the United States, Brown University, University of Oxford and Yale Law School.

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, also known as Stanford University, of Palo Alto, California and The New York Times Company of New York, New York.

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.

Concluding

And furthermore, by using or visiting, in any way, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, any area, part, section or properties of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, any area, part, section or properties of its divisions, series, subsidiaries or affiliates, as well as any of its Products or Services, including the Sites, you accept and agree to the statements, terms, conditions and requirements described above and on this section regarding the Founding and Governance of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts, and in the Codes and Policies, in their entirety without modification.

Child Looking Up Among Adult Celebrants
Child at Ceremony, Ikorodu, Nigeria, 2016 (Oshomah Abubakar)
Boy Smiling While Showing Hand String Game
Boy Playing Hand Game, 2017 (Alexander Radelich)
Child in Costume Looking at Camera
Niño, Cusco, Peru, 2018 (Ben Ostrower)
Tatooed Map on Outstretched Arm
Map on Arm, Dayton, US, 2017 (Don Ross III)
Woman with Arm on Head, Smiling
Woman in Joy, Kolkota, India, 2017 (Loren Joseph)
Boy Among Chidlren in Class, Looking at Camera
Children in Classroom, Nakasaki District, Kampala, Uganda, 2017 (Bill Wegener)
Woman Seated on Mat on Floor, Holding Fan
Seated by Kpone Katamanso District Assembly Office, Tema, Ghana, 2017 (Nathaniel Tetteh)
Girl Kneeling in Busy Street
Tibetan Girl, 2017 (Journey Yang)

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.

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 and PDF)

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

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

Communities at The Trusts

The establishment of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts entails a set of core emphases that ensure and reflect the originating charitable mission and purposes. These emphases inform each instance of commitment, effort and work to achieve benefit, impact and success. And they furthermore produce three features evident in the resulting governance structure, operations and most importantly, communities:

01.

Governace Suited to Local and Global Philanthropy

The governing structure of The Ikoku Charitable Trusts has been designed to be attentive to needs and operations at the local and global level, as well as across the complex states and societies where the served communities reside, living shared, interdependent lives.

02.

With Respect Being Central to Ethics

At the core of the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics is a commitment to the most robust conceptions of respect, dignity and humanity, including and beyond what the law has protected and provided for, as The Ikoku Charitable Trusts fulfills its twin mottos: to serve the public interest in Africa and its global diasporas; and to account for the past while ensuring a shared and just future.

03.

To Ensure a Just and Shared Future for Many

The Ikoku Charitable Trusts is inspired by peoples who have contributed to the foundations and development of their societies, despite a history of systemic difficulties. Who maintain an unyielding belief that the betterment of their human condition will foster the betterment of those living around them and will enhance the futures of the regularly disenfranchised, marginalized and underserved. . The Ikoku Charitable Trusts draws from these examples a vision of the public good and common community that is its hope and objective.

More About Us

The Ikoku Trusts

About Us • Founding & Governance • Policies • Communications • Careers at the Trusts

The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations are independent, private, non-profit organizations that serve 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.

— About Us

Nature, Scope, Means

The Ikoku Charitable Trusts’ founding mission and ongoing emphases of support are for good works that help the public understand Africa's essential place in a global future, one that is to be more knowledgeable, environmentally sound, equitable and of deep benefit across communities in shared societies.

— Founding & Overview

Charitable Mission, Purposes, Goals

To this end, The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations are governed by a Board of Trustees and two differently dedicated Advisory Boards of Directors — a three-board system set out and defined in the original Declaration of Trust, where the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics is also delineated.

— Governance

Leadership, Boards, Documents

The policies provided on these Sites collectively constitute the User Agreement and Code of Conduct, which govern all activity and work in and for, access to and use of, association with and reference to The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations. Please read them attentively.

— Policies

Codes, Conditions, Terms

Take a look, and follow The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations. Follow, too, media events and the coverage that precedes them or ensues. You may also sign up for newsletters, which will update you about developments at these organizations and the communities they serve.

— Communications

Press, Newsletters, Reports

Join The Ikoku Charitable Trusts and The Ikoku Foundations as a potential leader, staff, board or committee member, researcher or educator, contributor, volunteer, partner or collaborator. A career of contributing to and helping define the greater good through these organizations may be the perfect fit for you.

— Careers at the Trusts

Jobs, Volunteer, Collaboration