Ok, now that it seems that I've been a little misunderstood.....
I just was curious as to what Critter's and dragonlady's bylaws said in requiring the carryover.
I'm not against carrying funds over from one year to the next. Usually (meaning our finances), we carry over the unexpended funds as operating funds for the period prior to our upcoming fall fundraiser. We also earmark funds for major projects. I'm reminded of the IRS question as to what we're doing with our funds as a non-profit.
The sad fact is, most of our schools can't afford to wait a month to send out fundraisers. Not because we need to refill our treasury, but because we now live in the world of "you snooze, you lose" fundraising.
It used to be pretty simple: We wanted to make sure our sales period overlapped the 1st of the month (typical payday), avoid the mid-November to mid-January period, and (in the Spring) steer clear of competing with old favorites like Girl Scout Cookie Sales.
Now, a key concern is getting the jump on all the competing fundraisers. Waiting isn't really an option for the organizations that feel successful sales are key to achieving their other goals.
Hi, I'll speak for Critter...The idea behind the carryover is just like Tim said - to give us money for early year expenses. That's the theory, but in reality, we still do our major fundraiser in October.
One year when the principal wanted to carryover way MORE than $2000, I did a review of our past early year expenses and found we have very few "start up" expenses and the carryover covers them fine. Lots of people say they want to carry over extra money "just in case", but our history has shown there is no "case". Rather, our philosophy has been to spend as much as we can in the previous year so the kids whose families raised the money get the benefit right away.
Originally posted by jonwilson: Critter,
I'm curious as to why your bylaws require the $2000 carryover and what is it for?
Thanks,
Jon Wilson
Won't speak for Critter, Jon, but I'm a huge fan of carrying over funds (even lots of funds) into a new year.
To me, one of the biggest involvement mistakes groups make is hitting parents right away in the new school year with the big fundraiser. That first, loud fundraising pitch often cements the harmful reputation of the PTO as "that fundraising group", when what we really want is a reputation as "that great group that does so much for our school and our kids."
And the reason groups do that early, loud fundraising is that they need to fill up the treasury in order to do all the good work for the year. If groups carry over funds, then they can make the focus of the first month of school all about involvement and service.
We have a similar statement as Critter in our bylaws. We have to carry over a minimum of $1500 in our checking and savings account. Its very helpful when you start the new year and you have $3000 to help get you started.
I can't answer for Critter but usually you would budget a carry over to be certain that the following year's parent group has some money to work to with at the start of the year.
