This could go either way, some groups like to hold over half of their budget or less. Some groups hold over money for a specific project in mind. I personally have a peeve about holding more that a couple thousand over, unless you are cutting a fundraiser because you have so much. Just curious do you offer any free family fun nights to your families? if not that is a great thing to do. For the record we keep around 1000.00 and our budget is usually around 12,000. When we do our budget we wait until after our fall fundraiser tells us whether it was up or down and then we budget from there. I know most groups do it in the spring but we find this keeps it pretty close. I mean one year we made 7000.00 on a sale and the next 4000. so we went from there. I know there are others here who can help you with their point fo view

It's truly up to you. Some folks here believe in spending what they make all the way down so the children that raise the money get the benefit. We do a carry over so we can fund the events we have planned before our first fundraiser kicks in (3K) for us. You do need a vote but it should be one with some facts backing it up. 5K with no need to hold onto it means to me it's time to throw some events to bring the school together. 5k is easy to spend and may be too much in reserve. We only ensure there is 3k left in June to start up in September. Hope this helps...d

We have a small school 70(ish) families and a similarly small yearly budget $10,000. Over the years the PTO has done fundraisers and kept building up the reserves which now are approx. $5k.

Our executive board feels that it is too much to have on hand but don't have a clue as to how much is too much and how much is too little?

We plan on bringing it up to a vote but are looking for ideas for a reasonable amount.