Hopefully you have heard the loud and emphatic "NO!"s that the others offered. We all try to stress that it has nothing to do with trust, that we are sure the person is honest. . . .
Your fund raising chair is either terribly naive - which warrants closer supervision, especially if she is making agreements with anyone on behalf of the PTO - or she is corrupt or considering becoming corrupt. Anyone who has any experience with non-profits would be horrified at the idea of running a serious fund raiser and accepting checks made out to them. The fact that this idea was brought forth by the person to whom the checks are made out to. . . .
Our cub scout treasurer laughed once and said, "It's always the person you trust. You wouldn't give your money to someone you didn't trust" If someone tried to write a check directly to her she would smack them!
That's the beauty of bylaws! Nothing is personal. Nobody is asked to judge someone else's integrity, motivation, trustworthiness, etc. It's just business. Good, sound business.
As treasurer, your answer always begins with, "The bylaws state..." Nobody can argue with that.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
With out doubt all checks should be made out to the PTO, provided to the Treasurer and submitted to your bak account.
Integrity is not even the issue here as there is just too much that can go wrong. I understand the idea of making things easier over the summer, but this Findraiser Chair should be able to work with your Treasurer and follow the normal process.
I agree with the others - this is absolute no, no. It has nothing to do with how reliable a person is, nor should it. An organization has a responsibility to safeguard its funds by putting in good financial practices. Then everyone follows those rules all the time. Period.
Not only are you safeguarding the organization; you are protecting your treasurer. If anything goes wrong, numbers don't match - it can hurt her reputation. PTO gets in trouble with the IRS and her bank account was used for transaction?? Who knows what could happen. They might freeze HER account. Big fundraiser where everything gets deposited the same day? The banks have red flags for unusual large deposits. Does she really want her personal account on a watch list?
Back on the protecting the organization side, I can assure you we all had absolute faith in Mr. X, one of our leaders. Responsible. Trustworthy. Worked tirelessly for the PTO. Gave more time and effort than everyone else combined, right up until the moment we asked him to step down for embezzlement. (PTO was informal back then; no good cash controls.)
