I have the same problem with the "casual spending practices" in the PTO I just took. I am a first time President and I am very organized, or I try to keep up appearances, ha! I got into the position and began looking at the way funds were being squandered, for example, ALL of the money, or at least 3/4 was being spent on programs and then some for teacher appreciation. There is no "big plan" for the future, no school store, no family nights, no carnival, nothing. My goal is to set up a budget for this year, beginning with things we NEED to accomplish and start up. I just want to say thank you to the people who posted replies to Dawn's question because you just helped me also!! I am being met with hostility from the past president because I am already affecting change and it will be much easier to put her nastiness aside if I have a solid budget that is passed to stand on!

Our Budget breaks down into categories as well...basically along the lines of our programs we run.

Membership (Sun Fund)
Hospitality
Ice Cream Social
Morale and Spirit
outlays for tshirts/spirit items and our Bobcat Bags for our children that may get injured during the year.
Movie Nights
Carnival

Along those lines...I can continue if you'd like...d
Book Club

Dawn,
I came into my position as Treasurer and found every thing in chaos. No real budget had been used for years as well as various other issues. Needless to say, organized person that I am, I couldn't stand any of this. I did my best to go through 3 years worth of back receipts and bank statements to try to figure out what had been paid for and why. That was how I came up with my first tentative budget.

Oooohhh, OK. I understand now. If you spend some time over the summer listing priority spending items and go into the school year with an established budget then it'll be a lot easier to deny random requests with an "I'm so sorry but those funds are already allocated for xxxxx." Good idea.

It does sound like your group has some very casual spending practices in place. A budget and solid by-laws will certainly help!

Other good reason for having a budget in place is that you might get parents to step up fundraising efforts so you can do even more for the students.

I don't know what size school you have to spread $5000 over, but here are some things my group has done with roughly $20,000 over 750 students and 65 staff members. Bold items are annual. Others are as surplus funds are available.

Field trips @ $5/student (BOE covers transportation costs)
Art Supplies
Science Consumables
Teacher Reimbursements @ $100 each(for classroom items)
Playground stuff (balls, jumpropes, etc)
Playground Equipment (by saving surplus funds over several years to purchase large items)
Teacher Appreciation Week
Laminating Film
Library Books
Character Counts materials
Arts Day
TVs and DVD/VHS combos
Computer Printers
New Chairs for Teachers' Lounges

Other things we do that are self funding as well as make a profit (thanks to carry over start up funds) are the annual School Carnival and the Yearbook.

Hope this helps.......

I understand what you are saying. Our group has never had a "budget plan" for the year. The way we end up spending money is someone asks someone agrees and they get the money. But then when it comes to start up money for our big fundraisers like a fall festival they are so tight we get $100 to plan the whole thing. It just seems like we could be so much more organized and help our school so much more if we had a plan. I think last year with all fundraising efforts we may have made about $5,000 and that is probably being a little generous. I was wondering what kinds of things other PTOs pay for to kind of see how we compare. I feel that we pay for a lot of things that the district should be responsible for which cuts into items and activities we could do for the kids. Like I said we have had our PTO for a long time but in some ways we are just starting too.

I agree with dlf - seeing other budgets may confuse you more than help you. Backing into the budget from an income perspective is the safest way. Average your total fundraising income from the past two or three years and use that as your benchmark. Then, itemize the projects and services that you want. Prioritize them in case funds fall short and you need to cut things.

My group has a few vague items. Rather than saying we will give $2,500 to the library, we said, "All Market Day profits will go to the library to buy books." And, instead of $3,000 to the Athletic Fund, we say, "50% of concessions profits will go directly into the Athletic Fund."

If you would rather head into fundraising efforts with a new, higher goal then line item the things you know for sure you want to fund, such as:

Field Trips @ $5/student (500 students) = $2,500
Teacher Appreciation = $,1500
Laminating Film = $1,500
Sno-Cone Day = $100
Arts Day = $3,000
Library = $2,500
Total = $11,100

Then you know you need to raise at least $11,100.