Thank you for the information. I am checking on the EIN. Are most PTO's 501(c)3 and incoporated? I have been looking into this and it seems intense. Can we still accept donations? Are they a write off for the donor? Is there a English (versus the tax booklets) version of the advantages and disadvantages to all this? If all I accomplish during my term is getting our PTO "up to snuff", I will. I just do not know where to start.
Please help. :eek:
Where is your money kept? Even an unincorporated, non-501c3 PTO can have its own bank account. Do you? Or is your money in an account held by the school? Check carefully if you're not sure: ask the bank for the tax id number used on the bank account. Check with your school's business office to see if the number is the same as the school's. Even if you parents have physical control over the checkbook, technically, the money in that account belongs to the owner of the tax id number used to open the account. Which means your money could in fact belong to the school
If the money belongs to the school, you don't have much to say about how it's spent.
On the other hand, if the money is held in an account which was opened using a tax id number assigned by the IRS to the PTO, then your members are in control.
Roberts Rules won't necessarily help you on this big issue. RRO will give you procedural guidance on voting on motions, electing officers, running meetings, and writing bylaws. But this is a bigger issue, a test of your group's long-term relationship with the school.
I remember reading here on this site about a group that set up a separate parent-driven group just to raise money for their playground. As I recall, the formal parent-teacher group wouldn't take on the project for some reason, so this mom got a few other parents together to raise money specifically for the playground. They set up a separate legal non-profit organization, but worked through the school much like a typical PTO might. I suppose that's one way to focus on playground improvement if all other efforts to work out the problems fail. Good luck.
We are a PTO that is not 501(c)3 and unincorporated. We should be governed by Roberts Rules according to the bylaws.
We have worked hard all year with the impression from the principal that a playground is the goal. Now, they have requested over half of the money to get out of debt, operating expenses, and agendas for the students next year. Do we have to do this? Who controls how the money is spent? Is there a way to vote for the playground, create a fund in order to accummulate the money needed to build the playground?
I didn't spend all my time there and raise money to bail out mismanaged school money, did I?
Someone with any advise, please help.
Also, what are Robert's Rules? I think the next step is they want the fundraising money held by the school. Last year, (not on the board then) the books show about $1,400 transferred into the school general fund that was suppose to be spent on books. How can we stop this.
