Our group had this happen several years ago. We did have the person responsible pay back the group.
The group put in safeguards of requiring 2 signatures on every check or withdraw. The bank account was closed and a new one opened. We also require treasurer reports at every meeting that everyone can look at.
Remember, to do soem fun nights as well.
a movie night at the school is a great way to get family involved again... All kids love to come hang out with their friends while watching a great movie-- Pick something just released, charge a $1.00 per person at the door- reasonable for everyone.
You can also have concessions available for sale-- a lot of these items you can get donated from businesses such as Wal-mart- Costco, Sam's club.
Good luck to you.
We had this happen to us this school year. We started out owing everyone and checks bouncing. I am happy to say we are in the plus now. We first did a sub and sandwich sale. Just 19 of our PTA members. The company asks nothing up front and we earned about 48% of what we sold. We also just did a bake sale. We asked the parents to donate the items. That went well but the sub sale earned us much more. We just last Sunday night had a family night at our community center. They normally charge $6 to get in to use the pool, equipment, basketball courts, pool tables. They opened just for our school from 6:15 to 8:15. They charged everyone $3 and gave us back $1.50.
I am the new treasurer. I had to audit our books, file a claim with our insurance, our current president had to file a police report (per our insurance company) No police report no check. We have over 3,000 in our account now and we are waiting for the insurance company to cut us the check. That takes sometime. The police are getting pictures from the bank of cash being taken out. And they think they have two misdemeaners and one felony on her.
This was so time consuming and we are trying to rebuild our relationship with parents that want to blame and are angry because we couldn't say a lot at first due to the investigation.
I would do a recovery walk a thon! WE just made almost 10K with only 375 kids. It is our one and only fundraiser and the parents love it. We do it during the day as if it was their gym class.
One grade at a time walks around the school and it is 1 mile! Be honest with everyone though.
I think you should just ask. Ask the families of the school, tell them what has happened and be up front about the failures of the past and the SAFEGUARDS you have put in for the future and then ask for their generosity to get you going. Just 5 dollars a person will kick start the organization and give you enough money to do a community event where you can really start to focus on your goals.
The KEY issue here is what went wrong?!!! You have to give the population a reason to believe in you again. How could the treasurer take ALL the money and no one know it. THAT would be my first question and would cause me as a parent to say "why should I invest in this". It's time to turn up the spotlight and focus it on yourselves to make sure that folks see the cockroaches are gone. The best way to do that is be honest, open and let them ask every question they might have....then ask for their money. This has been a breach of trust and unfortunately until you replace it, that is your current legacy.
