We have a similar situation with our book club. We simply have a line item with the budget, in this case $500, which is available only to the activity to which it belongs. Anything over that budget must be requested and approved by the PTO, but that money is theirs to use... as long as receipts are provided and money is accounted for.

I suspect your wrestling coach just knows it will be easier for him to get bills paid and reimbursement checks from the PTO than through the school's account. In agreement with a previous reply, we would handle this situation as a "below the line" account where we take care of the ins and outs, but don't count the account balance as part of PTO funds.

If this sort of situation becomes routine and the dollar volume and transaction load becomes a burden, you might suggest that the athletic department set up a parent booster club.

We call this laundering money LOL. We make a line item on the treasurers report until the money is used, it is not added to the budget. This, to us, is the same as the the PTO voting to set up and spend a dollar amount on playground equipment or computers or the like, the money is removed via paper only from the general account and made a line item on the treasurers report, once the project is complete the line item is closed and removed.

It happens to us mostly with donations to the library, a check comes in, the PTO deposits it and turns it into books or what ever the librarian buys.

If we go through the "school account" then there is red tape and the three bid requirements etc that we have to deal with to get the money back.

Please read my question under "handling school discretionary funds". My concern is that you will end up in the same boat we are, handling thousands of dollars worth of funds!

Is the team or school in a situation such that it can't take contributions? I would think the first choice would be to have the donation go through the school's accounts. But if everything's on the up and up, and it's done in good faith, we would probably be okay with it.

Our PTO frequently manages "wish lists" for the various grades, encouraging parents to donate specific items needed. No one's ever donated CASH before, but if they did, we'd take it and earmark for spending on that grade.

Similarly, I could see that if, say, a leader a specific program came to us and said, "we want to encourage donations to our program, but we need a neutral body to manage it for us". Assuming the Principal was in agreement and that donations were in line with the 501(c)(3) guidelines, we'd probably do it. A main concern would be that a donation not benefit a single student or too small a group of the students. If it's a scholarship situation, we'd want to be sure the requirements were fair and the selection process impartial.

Obviously, if there is some shady intent, and the point is just to "make the money look like it came from the PTO", we'd decline.

Our middle school wrestling coach is being given a $500.00 donation to be used for the wrestling team, shirts, shoes and scholarships for wrestling camps during the summer. The coach has asked our PTO to take the donation and enter it in our budget and to spend the same amount on the team. The question is can we and if so what is the easiest way to do it. I can't find anything in our bi-law to help us out. Some board members are concerned about liability. Anybody know any information or been in similiar situations? Your input would be appreciated!!