Ha! I was just reading a post I wrote back in May and I have to laugh. Now, our School Board is coming to our Parents' Club to help with some of those "keep the lights on" expenses, too! Even though he told us he wanted us to use our money for big ticket items. Ugh. Most of our fundraising efforts go into our Parents' Club and not directly into the school budget and that seems to be coming a problem.
I'm an upcoming president of a Parents' Club at a private school so I have my two cents to throw in. A few years ago, we had a principal who sort of used our Parents' club money that way, in other words, for just plain expenses. I hear she thought that Parents' Club money was basically hers to interject into the school budget (needless to say, she is no longer there!). Still, when the school was struggling, they would come to us for repair type items. Fast forward a couple of years: they have now implemented an "Annual Fund" and that money goes into the school budget (except for 10% which is saved) and they also did a hefty 15% tuition increase, which choked everybody. The new principal's goal is for the Parents' Club to fund "extra" big-ticket items and not everyday expenses. So far it's going smoothly...but in the interim you may be asked to contribute. One thing to note though: with our setup the administration has to come ASK for money they can't just TAKE it. And we can vote it down.
Shelly
Being a private school that's having trouble meeting expenses, you are in a different situation (even though most of us are from schools struggling financially one way or another).
You've already said in your other posts the school is looking at options, which basically comes down to raising tuition, lowering expenses, finding other sources of revenue/donations.
I think the key for your group is WHY the parent group was originally formed. In my friend's (private) school, it exists to do the "keep the lights on" fundraising as well as the extras, parent involvement, teacher appreciation, etc. It was set up as an arm of the school to serve that purpose, so would be very difficult for them to now decide they want to be a traditional PTO and provide only extras.
If your group wasn't initially intended to do that type of fundraising, I can see where you'd want to try to draw the line.
Again, it comes back to communication and both sides agreeing how the funds will be earmarked and who will make the decisions about spending them.
While I have no problem supporting the school, currently a large majority of our fundraising efforts are used for "paying the bills". I understand that without this our school would not survive but my hope is that our PTO will be able to concentrate on acquiring other items for the school that would build up our curriculum such as spelling bees odyssey of the mind. What I do not want to happen is have our PTO raise money for specific items and then have our board tell us that they can not pay the heating bill and take our money.I feel that our board should do that. We have just hired a development director who should be able to help us with capital campains etc.
What are your thoughts and experiences.
My personal opinion is that as long as there is good communication (and documentation) of expectations, this would be a good way to go.
Afterall, your overall goal is to support the school/students, not to run a business - which is the piece you have to take on if you set up your own 501(c)(3). This setup allows you to focus on programs and leave the adminstrative headache up to them. If it doesn't work out in the future, you could always explore spinning off into your own organization then.
Again - it's just my opinion. But if I had a good relationship with the school's administration and both sides agreed on terms, this would be my preferred model.
I am starting a PTO at a private school which all ready has a non-profit 501(c)(3) status. They have asked me if I thought the PTO could work with their filing for non-profit and the PTO could be a line item that will be untouchable to the rest of the school. Our Fine arts dept. is set up this way and it seems to run smoothly. My only question would be what if they run into a financial problem, could they take money out of the PTO or would a well written document(of some type) prevent this from happening.
