Question: Charter School Uniforms

I'm the PTO president for a new charter school who uses a uniform with the school logo. The first year we didn't have to have to logo on the shirts but on this second year, students are required to have the school uniforms with the logo on it. There are no companies nearby willing to work with the school, so I was wondering if PTO could buy shirts and pay for the logos to be embroidered and sell the shirts to parents. Would our PTO have to register as vendors? If so, is there such a thing as nonprofit vendor?

Asked by Jessica

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
Have you looked nationally? I know of at least one uniform company, French Toast, that does embroidering. I'm guessing there are others. Regarding buying the uniforms yourself, a more straightforward way to do it would be to take orders and collect money upfront. Then purchase the uniforms, have them embroidered, and deliver them to parents. The difference is that if you collect the money first, there's no risk to the PTO that you would purchase merchandise that you couldn't sell. Plus, you wouldn't have to worry about how many of each size to buy, for example. Because you would simply be a go-between -- taking orders and delivering merchandise (at cost), I doubt you would have to register as a vendor (though the apparel and embroidery companies might.) Still, that's a question you'd need to take up with the school or district to be sure.