a hypersurface in a compact manifold $m$ with boundary is called a free boundary minimal hypersurface (fbmh) if it is minimal and meets the boundary of $m$ orthogonally. such hypersurfaces arise naturally as critical points of the area functional in $m$. if we do not assume any boundary convexity of $m$, then the fbmh may be improper, i.e., the interior of the fbmh may touch $\partial m$. we will discuss the compactness and existence results for fbmhs in this general setting.