I think your plan is a good one. When fundraising, it's just very important to communicate in advance about the desired outcome and how the funds will be used. It's fine if it's to repair the roof or for operating costs or for extras like special field trips - as long as everyone is on board. What causes problems is that some folks think the effort is for X and others Y and then there's dissention about it afterwards.
Start with what your purpose is and the areas where the PTO will put forth its efforts. Frankly, although "PTO" can mean anything, I might encourage you to choose a different name.
The most common objectives of a PTO are:
Faclitate communication with school families and stakeholders
Coordinate volunteers
Encourage parent involvement
Fundraising (for extras, to keep tuition low, for scholarships, to supplement existing programs - whatever your agreed upon reason is).
I personally don't like to see fundraising as the main "purpose" or listed first. To me, it's a mechanism to achieve other things. So it's really all in the wording.
After you've defined your purpose - and bylaws are a really good idea - start working on your structure and your planned initiatives.
It's really all about communication and clarity of purpose. That sets the stable foundation for your development.
Our school is a non-profit and for our first year as it grows I think it may be best if the PTO is under the school's umbrella. We are have a lot of families who want to do a lot of things and while we want to encourage family involvement I would like it to be a little more structured and as the director I just do not have time. Mainly our PTO would be involved in fundraising and assist in event planning and coordination. Any help on how to forge a head would be great.
I think the first two questions are 1) What does your PTO want to accomplish? and 2) Is your pre-school a for-profit or not-for-profit organization?
Considering those factors, decide if your PTO should be a separate, independent entity or if it should exist under the umbrella of the school - essentially as a committee.
If it exisits as part of the school, then the assets and finances (and final decision-making authority) rest with the school. If you need it to be separate, especially if your school is for-profit and your want to try to set your PTO up as non-profit, then you need to go through the steps to formalize legally.
I don't know that a PTO in your situation needs to be a separate legal entity. But the key question is - what do you want the PTO to do?
The best piece of advice I can give you is to start with the legal aspect. I believe that as of 2008 every PTO has to file a tax return. There are simple forms for groups with a smaller budget, which would apply on a per income basis, bringing me to the next legality; you must file for non-profit status. Any CPA should be able to help you with that, maybe someone interested in your group has some sort of experience. Next, PTO Today has a wealth of information you will need such as sample by-laws, sample budgets, agendas, etc.. As far as I know, most groups have a fiscal year that differs from the school's fiscal year. PTO has a tendency to begin June 1st and it ends on May 31st. Check with your county, state and federal laws first, once that is taken care of, you are well on your way. Choose your officers which will include president, vp, secretary and treasurer. Then comes your directors, who are going to have a vote. Later it is just a matter of establishing your school's needs and selecting volunteers to run programs and commitees such as fundraisers and special projects. I hope any of this helps!
I am the director of a very large preschool, during the school year we serve about 200 families. Our families are very interested in having a PTO organization and as both the director and a parent myself I totally support the idea. I just have no idea how to get it started. Does anyone have any recommendations or is there a publication I can purchase. Any help would be appreciated.
