supermom3.1;149219 wrote: Thanks Lisa! That will help a lot! I found a few things online about our school, but still have a small workload in front of me. It doesn't seem like it will be too hard, just time comsuming at first. Then waiting...

Does anyone know... Just because we keep our money separate; do we have to become a PTA?

No, you don't and we have our own account with a small credit union close to our campus. We have not been able to become a 501(C)3 --we don't raise enough money to really afford the inital paperwork.

The staff with the credit union have been terrific about any and all our questions that we have had.

Something I would highly advise, wherever you end up banking with, PLEASE ask your school's secretary or accounting office to keep a copy of your bank statement for the PTO. When the statement comes, a copy is made and placed in an unmarked binder and the Treasurer gets the original. Why? We had 2 Treasurers (one a professional accountant) that lost ALL our statements and the bank the school had us with charged us for copies of our statements AND for speaking with their accountant. Our binder is with the CFO in her office and it's there for our protection/insurance.

Good luck!

supermom3.1;149265 wrote: Does a PTO have to be incorporated?

To be 501c3, I'm pretty sure you have to be incorporated. It's a good idea, anyway.

I have found our EIN and it says we are listed as a 509(a)(2). I'm guessing that I will have to get that changed.

Does a PTO have to be incorporated?

Thanks so much for everyone's help!

It doesn't have to be PTA, could be PTO, or even something else, but generally, if you want a bank account, you need an EIN. You probably want to be incorporated for liability reasons (so no one tries to sue you individually). Once you've started down this road, you want to review the 501c3 rules, because probably you'll end up filing for it, and you want to have your by-laws and incorporation documents fit the IRS requirements.

If you think you were incorporated at some point, you might check with your state -- we were delinquent on our filings, but were able to reinstate ourselves. The IRS non-profits division is generally friendly & helpful; if you have an organization name, they can look you up (they did for us, and found that we already had an EIN -- but, alas, no one had ever filed any tax returns, never mind Form 1023).

Thanks Lisa! That will help a lot! I found a few things online about our school, but still have a small workload in front of me. It doesn't seem like it will be too hard, just time comsuming at first. Then waiting...

Does anyone know... Just because we keep our money separate; do we have to become a PTA?

Hi Supermom-
Looks like have have some good info from jcoram!

Just in case you haven't read this article yet, the 9 Things You Need to Know at the bottom of the article would also prove helpful.

PTO Today Articles

Good luck,
Lisa