Does your non-profit have Articles of Association? If it does, is there a provision for dissolution of the organization? Contact the IRS for information on how to distribute the assets, should you choose to dissolve.

That aside...I am amazed that your principal, teachers, parents, school board, etc. is willing to let this valuable project go over petty jealousies.

The first thing I would do would be to attend the next general meeting of the PTO. You are a parent at the school so you should be a member. If you need to pay dues, do so. Voice your concerns to the general membership, not just the board. Make it clear that you will no longer be at the school next year and that if no one will take the responsibility of maintaining the nature path the school and the students will lose this valuable teaching tool. In addition, make it clear that the organization will be dissolved and it's assets redistributed according to federal law if no one is willing to take charge. Lay the options out to everyone and let them take it from there.

You also stated that you are in a small mountain town. Is there a local paper you can contact? Your nature path is not only a valuable school asset, but also a valuable community asset.

Hi. I just wanted to say that this is forum is a great idea! Thank you. This is a long one, but I don't want to miss details. Our problem is this... We started with a hand ful of folks that wanted to build a nature trail and it evolved into a science program. We initially came to the PTO and asked for funding for the trail.It was granted,the trail built in the redwoods. Then we put in a garden, and a pond for science study and our "group" joined up with the school site council (not the PTO) seeking recognition to become a program at the school for use by the teachers and students. After about five years, many of the parents dropped off the committee and moved on. Since I have three kids, I was still left. The program continued to evolve, got larger, press coverage etc and parents volunteered to be "docents" in classrooms to take students on trails, etc. The organization then became a non-profit with me still as president. We started receiving private grants in fairly large amts to continue the program. The money was spent on purchasing science equipment for teachers although they had the opportunity, theydid not specifically request the equipment,we just bought it for parent volunteers inthe classes. We also pd for sci field trips, trail maint., etc. I dropped off the school site council as it was just too time consuming and political. So now our committee has dwindled to three members and now the organization has been together for seven years. I am no longer the Pres. We have become more and more isolated. We have tried to reach out and join with other in school organizations. The PTO resents us because we never joined forces with them in the first place, the educational foundation will not give us assistance (they are friends with the PTO folks), the principal/superintendent gives us absolutely no support. She says we are "not with the school". She will not let us communicate with the teachers via email or at Back to School Nite for the parents. So basically we have totally unintentionally isolated ourselves into a small box. We have $30,000 in our treasury, which is pretty big bucks for a small ele school of 400 students. We are located in a rural tiny district (600 students) in the mountains. We have lots of infighting/power issues with the same people involved such as the same folks on the school board are the same folks that are on the educational foundation, are the many of the same folks on the PTO. For a small community, it is crazy to have so many "groups". We also have an "theater committee"that is also separate and raises it's own funds. Crazy huh? Are there any legal rights to have the district recognize us? Can the district/teachers legally choose to work with one group over another? Such as in our case, allow the arts organization to sponsor a person to teach theater in the classroom as opposed to our organization sponsoring someone to teach science? The School Board says they are interested but never return our phone calls-we're not with the "in" crowd. It is very very frustrating. I have put years of my life into this program and feel downtrodden and unappreciated. My third child will be out soon. I have contemplated sending an email to all the diffferent "groups" explaining our plight. Do you think it would help? Maybe its time to "throw in the towel" on this one. Is there a place I could gethelp dissovling a non-profit? Maybe someone out there has had experience with a similar situation?....Thanks for listening!