PottsvilleMom - thanks for adding some fun perspective. While every dollar our PTO's collect is important and should be accounted for, it's good to be reminded of varying size of budgets in the non-profit world.
One of our volunteers used to (jokingly) complain that our financial reconciliations were too painstaking and would we mind if she just followed the same practice they did at her work: rounding to the nearest HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars. Yeah, right!
I work for a non-profit and we carry over 65 MILLION each year. There is no limit to the amount you can carry over.
I agree with bww, if you carry over the same amount each year, technically the only ones who are not getting the benefit are the ones that earned the money the first year.
Originally posted by bww: ... but they technically are getting the same amount from the kids the year before. It certainly helps over the summer and the beginning of the year before things get rolling.
Agreed bww. Whether it's $8,000 or $4,000 or whatever your group can manage, i think this is a great policy for ensuring that your group doesn't have to spend it's whole first month (the most important month for building involvement) focused on fundraising.
We carry $8,000 over every year. I agree that it should be spent on the kids but they technically are getting the same amount from the kids the year before. It certainly helps over the summer and the beginning of the year before things get rolling.
I know that we do this different than alot of other PTOs but we always carry over enough money from year to year to cover the following years operating budget. Our operating budget includes financial commitments we have yearly such as scholarships, field trips, assemblies, activity night etc.
We have always done this in case there is a bad year - we are still covering the basics.
let me explain why people think they should not carry over money (which like Tim said, no law either way)
We suggest you not carry over more than you need to operate when you start up again. This is because it was raised by those students, during that year and people like to see it spent on their children, that year. For example, I had one unit that carried over, as a rule, $5,000 every year. That was $5,000 that could have bought new art supplies, books for the library, a year-end sockhop etc. So, no, there is no legal rule but what are you saving it for? Unless there's a specific goal in mind (playground equipment etc) why keep it? But there is no legal reason not to.
