I agree with all the above - the event's budget is now $1500.
Another way to look at it. We have a Family Literacy Commitee that is very active and does tons of wonderful stuff - so much that the PTO cannot fund everything they want to do. The PTO gives them an initial budget (for example, $1500) and they are authoriized to apply for grants from local sources. Let's say that the Book Mania/Swap event costs $1000, but they are able to get a grant for $500. We account for this situation by paying the expenditures out of the FLC budget (leaving them with $500) and the crediting their budget with the grant money when it is deposited (so now they have $1000 to spend on remaining FLC activities).
I move that the donation be added to the funds already allocated so that the PTO has $1500 to spend unless it was specified by the contributors that the funds donated be included in the $1000 budget.
Your recommendation should be what would be comfortable for your budget. Would the $500 help offset costs and help the PTO budget so you only have to allocate $500 PTO money for the event?OR can you afford to spend a $1000 with the $500 as bonus cash and used for extras not planned.
Me? I like to add the money we asked for inkind donations added to the event budget to help with our budget. I would say we have $500 donations and $500 PTO funds to spend.....but that's me.
We have a special program running this year that was funded totally with corporate donations. The funds sit in the regular account but are designated in the books as for this program. The planned expenditures are part of the approved line item budget for the year, but we also show that the expected expenses are covered by the donations.
I guess if I had something like this happen, I would probably put it to my general membership and let them decide if they want to let the $500 donation cover half of the budgeted $1000 or just add it to the $1000 so the event has a larger budget. If the committee originally felt they could do the event with $1000, will it be overkill to use $1500?
I would say that money donated for a specific event is to be used for that event. No voting needed. Since $1000. was already allotted then I'd say the committee can spend $1500. Good luck & have fun!
If money is donated for a specific event such as a walk-a-thon, should the PTO body vote on it being spent for the event or should they just be notified it was spent? Our by-laws state that spending over $100 must be voted on by the general body while spending under $100 may be approved by the board. However, when money is donated by a business for a specific event, it is automatically spent for that event. On the surface this seems fine - but would that stand up in an audit? Here is the situation. $1000 was approved to be spent on an event. $500 was received in corporate donations for the event. That money was deposited into the PTO account. Now can the event committee spend $1000 or $1500?
