We have done this. We were in the process of changing our group over to 501c3, but were not quite there yet & so $ raised for our playground went into a "school" playground account, rather than our groups playground acct. I have to admit, I'm not crazy about the idea. Even thought it is our $, we know how much it is, where it came from, etc., I'm uneasy about having it out of our hands. Our principal & super are excellent & I am pretty confident that it will not be used, but that doesn't erase the possibility that if we suddenly had a new principal or super that it would be re-allocated. It seemed like a logical way to do it at the time, but in hindsight, I think I would find a different way. When it is time to do our playground, we will buy the equipment & donate it to the school & I feel much more comfortable w/that than giving the school a large amount of money. Really, if this is money that you are raising, you have the right to put it in whatever acct. YOU choose. As far as the thank you's go, I would think it would be confusing to get 2 different ones. If the money is being donated to you, you should give them a receipt & you should in turn get one from the district/school if you are then putting the money into a district/school acct. If I write a check to XYZ PTO & get a receipt from XYZ school, to me, that doesn't match up. 2 different entities.
I'm generally not in favor of having PTO funds in a school or district account. I know many schools do it that way and it works, but I want our parents to have full control over the money they have worked so hard to raise. You'll have to ask your principal why he/she has it set up that way. I can't see any reason why it has to be that way, but perhaps your principal has a reason I haven't considered.
Our playground committee's funds are being deposited into a school/district account. Someone at the district office is to send ackowledgements and tax reciepts to our donors. We, the committee are supposed to send a separate thank you to donors without ever seeing what/when/if the district sends out their thanks. Does this sound right? Don't most PTO's put such funds in their PTO account and turn it over to the district to purchase equipment when the funds are raised in total? Why would our principal choose to set things up this way? I would really appreciate some insight on this. Thanks.
