I'll second Mrs. In fact, if your group is a federally-registered 501c3 non-profit charity (and I think all PTAs are), cash donations are deductible on the donor's federal income tax form. Don't forget to tell your parents that! Donations of merchandise can be deductible, too, but there are more exceptions than with cash.

You are so right to find it unbelievable. It is.
PTAs can receive donations-cash or otherwise. It sounds like you could use this info and more -in writing-to be able to handle the finances for your PTA according to PTA standards. Contact NY State PTA office and order the "Resource guide" for your PTA. Sounds like your presidents and you need some written guidelines.
Your state PTA holds conventions for training in the spring. If that's not possible for you to attend, PTO Today's conventions have info that's applicable to 501c3's also. Go to both if you can.

I'm in charge of getting donations for our raffle baskets this year. We are doing theme baskets by grade. In the flyer we put out, I wanted to include a line saying that if you would rather make a cash donation, the raffle committee would be more than happy to purchase something on your behalf. The 2 presidents that we have are saying that since we are a PTA and a non-profit organization, we legally cannot ask for cash donations, they have to give us a product. This doesn't sound believable to me. Does anyone know of any legal or tax consequences of a parent giving cash and the committee make a purchase? Please help me on this.