$5000 does sound like an awful lot of money for this type of event, and I like your idea of reducing it gradually. As for spending the money in the year raised, I agree that is the ideal, but if you have an unusually successful year I don't see anything wrong with saving some for the next year. The money should, however, be designated as funds for the grad night event and under no circumstances should it be used for anything else. If you have an excess, you can always look at it as you won't have to work as hard the next year to raise the funds and can give some of your regular donors a break. Also, with the economy the way it is right now, having that cushion could save your group from not having enough funds if you have a slow donation year.
I am the chair of a committee that is in charge of sober grad night for our high school. The event has gotten more elaborate over the years. The last five or so years it was run under the umbrella of the parent club but with a seperate checking account. This year the PC has taken control of the funds.
Two questions....
1. They have a history of keeping $5,000.00 as a reserve for this event. I think this is way too much money and am proposing (tomorrow night) to reduce this amount to $2,000 which would allow for deposits for the event center, postage and start-up costs. If I get resistance to dropping the amount so much in one year I will propose dropping by $1,000 per year until it gets to the $2,000.00 amount. Any feedback on this? Does anyone else think that the $5k is way too much?
2. How do you handle funds that are specifically raised for an event/item and are not spent in the year raised? I'm not sure of the legalities involved, but morally I think if donations are made for Grad night the money should be spent on Grad night and ideally spent the year it is raised. Any thoughts???
I am hoping for some good points I can use to get my ideas approved by the Parent club.
