Your easy way to implent this is to blame the IRS--- The IRS says that no member of our organization can profit by being a member--Which can mean that if mary is a member and mary is the fundraiser salesperson, mary will be selling to your organization and in turn will re ceive some sort of compensation fromt hose sales--it might be a profit paycheck, it might be a proze reward from the company she works with for moving merchandise 'off the shelves" etc. To protect our organization and the non profit status we cannot allow a member to beneift in anyway or else the IRS could pull our status or issue us a penalty.
Thanks to all of you for your replies. I feel a lot better about my "opinion", now I just need to find a way to go about implementing something in our bylaws so that this will not happen in the future. By the way this is a Longaberger sales rep and we did have someone last year, who is a parent, that wanted in on the sale instead of who we went with. So the conflict of interest could arise quickly now that the person we used last year is a parent this year. Confusing huh? Well I too have a gift fundraising company but felt that as my own "moral" opinion that I would not profit from my childrens schools. There are other schools out there that I could go to if I choose to use the fundraising route, I don't need to sell to my daughters school. If I did, I would give them 100% of the profit above the shipping because it is the right thing to do. This person I calculated is making at least, but probably more than, $500 with hostess gifts included. Being that I voiced my opinion early in the year about this to my other officers, I think that word got around to this parent and I have been targeted during our meetings with "petty" issues. How does anyone think that I should approach this subject without looking like I am "striking" back???????
Our school's policy, which the PTO has not written but just the same has been ask to honor, as a parent I cannot profit from or have my company profit from a school activity. We have had Dads DJ, asking we advertise their business in exchange; the same with a Mom starting a cake business but they were not paided. Our Principal doesn't want any hurt feelings etc. between parents or students if I was chosen over Johnny's mom (example).
I have seen so many parent's willing to donate their time and energy to help out.
Our PTA by-laws state that as officers we cannot promote our own business or profit while in office. Coincidentally, my first vp and myself are both in Direct Sales and both on the fundraising committee. We would never suggest our companies as a fundraising choice, not just because it's against the rules but because it's definately a conflict of interest. Another elementary school in our district does a "Basket Bingo" every year and their policy is to pick a longenberger rep that does not have a child at their school. Knowing that there are probably more then two reps to choose from their school, I thought that was a smart policy.
What about using a PTO members own business say at a Carnival or something? Wouldn't you rather support a family owned business in your community and let them earn whatever profit you would most likely be paying to some outside company? I think it is important to support those who support PTO. Am I wrong because there may be someone who cries "conflict of interest"? I am not really talking about a fundraiser so much as I am in using a companies services that you would otherwise pay for elsewhere...
your best bet to avoid any type of future problems with someone else coming forward and wanting to be "in" on the potential profit of using their school to sell their products is to set up a policy..Basically it already is in effect wiht the IRS regulations for a 501c3--That no member may be compensated for being a member of the organization..We do not use a sales rep of any company that is a member of our unit--Definelty a conflict of interest--plus then you can open yorself up to a possible discrimation suit--howcome you allowed mary to sell Avon and i sell it too--You didn't put out an open notification that you were accepting fundraising bids from memberships..
Avoid the mess--don't use a sales rep who is a member--it may work great the 1st time, but eventually someone is going to say "HEY!"//Remember these reps get some sort of incentive from their parent company regardless if they choose not to make a proft and sell it to your organization for cost..
