Our PTO raises the money, we vote on how to spend it. Specifically, we have a pretty detailed budget (projected income and spending plan) that we approve at the first meeting each year. Virtually all the money we raise goes to the school in one way or another, but it's the PTO members who have the final say. For example, the PTO funds all the assemblies (about $4000), so that is one line item in our budget. The Principal and the teachers decide which assemblies they want to schedule, we pay the bills. Another example: we have a budget for "Building Extras", but the ideas for how to spend that money come from the staff. Since the budget was approved already, we don't have another vote on a specific expenditure that is within the budget. Luckily, there is a great deal of trust and communication, so the PTO and the staff are partners. So far, we haven't had any controversies about spending, mostly, I think, because we do alot of upfront planning.
One more thing on ours, we (the school and the PTO) have agreed that we will only do two big fundraisers per year, one each semester. These are generally catalog sales, involve the students selling and which generate $10,000+ in profit.
We do have a lot of other events, some of which raise funds (a couple hundred here, a thousand there, etc.) But the focus is the activity - Breakfast with Santa, Family Night (which includes a silent auction), Skating, T-Shirt sales, etc.
Thus if the school wants a big fundraiser, we need to either let them do one of the planned two or we need to agree our kids are going to be involved in more selling. The Spring fundraiser is generally about half as successful as the Fall one, so the school took Spring, and we're keeping Fall.
We basically want everything involving parent volunteers to be considered a PTO activity. So regardless of who "owns" the event or fundraiser, we support it as the PTO. Thus we are seen as an integral part of the school from that aspect. Whether or not people "join" and pay their $3, everytime they work a shift at bookfair or help with a class party - they ARE involved in PTO.
Our school holds a very profitable golf tournament that funds there general fund. It pays for field trips and teacher requests that are whole class beneficial. This raises more than $5000 less than $7000 each fall. The student council raises money through dances and candy sales and buys hard items that will stay on campus. The librarian runs two scolastic book fairs a year that benefit the library, she also has grocery reciepts from one store ($1500). People in our state can donate $200. per year that goes to extra cirricular activities (sports, challenger club, science olymp., cheer, music, ect)this is money that is taken off what the tax payer owes the state. Our school recieved over $8000 from parents and over $5000 from teachers at our school last year. So
what does the PTO do to raise funds---In the fall we have a 'fund raiser', this year it was entertainment books, and we raised over $5000, and school pictures ended up profiting $2100 only because the company gave us about all profits they made to get our business as well as our sister school. Our community is not allowed to have garage sales so the PTO sells spots twice a year and has a 'community sale' with a concession stand that earns about $1000 each time, we collect used books and have a used book sale that brings in $600+, our pro hockey team provides 30 free tickets and we work a 50/50 sale at the game and we get 25% of the take(last time $750). We have other spirit things, family dances, bingo, that bring in small amounts of money but are never intended to be a fund raiser. We Control ALL profits and funds. If the school wants something they make a proposal to the board. If a teacher would like something=ditto. We choose our goal for the year and concentrate on that, so our budget reflects our needs, and what we have to do to get there. We do not help the school facilitate their fundraiser, or the librarian hers. They work for their money, we work for ours. I don't feel we break the backs of parents in any of our funraisers in that they are diverse and most of the time the family recieves something in return. ===If the General Fund needs funding, then the administration should fine a way to fund it, not expect the PTO to raise funds for them to decide how they will be spent.
Our PTO is a separate legal entity and controls its own budget. We have our own bank account into which all the funds are deposited, and we vote to decide how those funds will be used. We work very closely with our school Principal and have a great relationship, but that's not to say we agree completely on every purchase or the priority of purchases. However, we have give and take on both sides and it works out fine.
Note, the district auditor said last year that he would like to see the school "own" one of the two big fundraisers. (Bookfair is already theirs.) So our Spring catalog sale proceeds will go directly into the school's account. There's no real difference in that we are happily running it and providng all the volunteers (just like for bookfair). In this case, we are supporting an event, not raising funds for ourselves. All we asked was that the principal give us a general idea of how he plans to use the money. Not that it was a requirement, but this allows to know we are working for "new computers" or "science and art resources".
[This message has been edited by JHB (edited 02-22-2001).]
A new, but on-going, debate this year within our PTSO Board has been WHO should distribute the funds that are raised through the fundraising efforts. All fundraising efforts are currently handled by the PTSO Board and parent volunteers and all monies collected have been deposited into our bank account for distribution through our budget. Now the question has arisen as to why it is done this way and why isn't the monies turned over to the school to be distributed through the School Generated Funds account. What is everyone else's experience?
