A meeting is held at the beginning of the year with all co-chairs of committees and all rules and guidelines are reviewed and everyone is given a packet of those guidelines for their committee binder. There are written explicit rules of how to handle money. We do keep everything locked up until the co-chairs pick up the money and orders. Money is to be counted by both and signed by both chairs. She chose not to include the other co chair and chose not to abide by the written rules.
Writing it up as a loss to the PTO is not fair to the parents nor the kids that we represent and work hard to provide programs for. Yes, we sold over 17k, but the profit was 40%, so the $900 is part of $6800 raised. That is a large amount of money lost - approximately 15% loss.
After futile attempts to reconcile with the chair, we have chosen to proceed to recover the money lost with our insurance company. We are bonded. If the insurance company wants to file any type of claim or legal action with the chairperson, that will be up to them.
I feel that if it is handled in this manner, we are choosing not to make it a personal issue and following the path of what a business owner might do if this happened. We are a 501c3 organization and have to account for all money earned to the IRS now. I want to move on with the other activities without leaving a blemish on the PTO or make it a school community issue. I also feel that this is the only decision we should to being good stewards of the funds we raise for our students. Thank you all for your guidance and input!
sounds like the chair did everything correctly, just human errors compounded the root problem of not having clear guidelines and financial controls in place.
give her a break, write off the loss and keep relations positive, dont waste your prinicpals time, and rewrite your fundraising guidelines for record keeping and money counting.
Put some controls in place so hopefully this won't happen again.
At our school, the school secretary keeps all the fundraising orders and money (cash and checks) in a locked box. A few days after the deadline of when all the kids need to have their orders submitted, our board meets for a counting party. We must have at least 3 people present when all the orders are reviewed and money counted. The board folks go through the orders looking for discrepancies (who overpaid or underpaid and noting such on the order so that the fundraising VP or Treasurer can followup with those people; writing the students name in the memo portion of each check so that in case a check bounces, we can ask the student/parent to get the cash for us or their customer doesn't get their order). All the money is accounted for, and all board members are aware of the total dollar amount, and the treasurer puts the money (checks and cash) into the bank asap. (We would like to know what checks bounce before the order delivery date, so we can hold the goods until payment by cash is made if necessary.)
Never allow just one person to count the money and review orders.
Now, there can still be hidden discrepancies, since on the order forms, the customer will write down the item number and the dollar amount. We don't look through the huge catalog and find the item number to see if the customer wrote down the correct dollar amount for that item. This would take us a huge amount of time. So, there could be discrepancies in that manner....but we hope nothing huge.
I think you will have to put this one behind you, and just try to do it right next time around. I would NOT hold your fundrasing person responsible for the missing money, as the whole board is responsible for doing this right. You don't want to get into a legal mess (a lawyer would cost more than the $900 in missing money is worth). Chalk it up as a mistake and go on. Based on sales of $17K, this $900 is not a huge hit to you. You need to eat that money and go on.
It wouldn't be the first time a fundraising chair has just had enough of the event and walks away. That could be what she is doing here. She feels she has already put enough time and effort into the event and just wants to wash her hands of the whole situation. You have my sympathy. It would certainly be easier to recreate the orders and figure out what happened with her help, but it sounds like your working your way there. Hopefully, some of your parents who do owe money will come forward and clear their accounts and you won't end up with such a big discrepancy, because it really looks like your group is just going to have to eat the loss, since you don't have any real proof of who paid and how much other than the checks. Sad for the kids...
Thanks so much for everyone's advice on this subject. I wanted to give you an update and answer a few questions you have had:
1) I did match up checks with orders to come up with the total amount missing. I did check amount totals and came up with a few that were not correct, but the check amounts were...so that solved that problem. Their were no deposits made. I have all the checks and cash (treasurer is aware of the amount). I have made up a spreadsheet with the name, check number and amount.
2) My first concern was to show the chair how I got to the amount missing and where along the way could we have come up short. Just brainstorming...no accusations. I have not accused her of stealing. I also wanted to call the parents of the orders that were suspect and have her involved. She won't do it. She wants nothing to do with coming up with a solution. I have never accused, nor have hinted that anything improper has been done.
3) I sent a phone message to the student population to remind them that if their order was not sent in "paid in full", they needed to pay their balance due prior to pick up of their items.
4) My principal has been involved and has tried reaching out to her. The chair has reiterated that she will not come in and try and work this out. Principal even offered to come to her home.
5) I am hoping that she will come to the conclusion that by avoiding the issue is just making matters worse. Neither I nor the principal thinks she has stolen the money. But the fact is the money is not there.
Thanks again for all of your guidance. I will keep you posted as to what transpires from here!
