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TOPIC: Can a 501c3 give thank you gifts to school staff and/or parent volunteers?
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JHB
Wow, just wow
Posts: 2968
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RE: Can a 501c3 give thank you gifts to school staff and/or parent volunteers? 5 Months, 1 Week ago
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[FONT=Verdana]No one suggested the activity be hidden. All PTO expenses are categorized to fit within the different program areas. "Appreciation" activities (either school or volunteer) could justifiably fit under categories like "School Spirit", "Teacher Appreciation", "Community Building". What type of appreciation gifts to give (if any) is absolutely a group's policy decision. But the fact they can be given - subject to reasonable discretion - is not the issue. Aligning legitimate expenses with organizational program areas is simply accounting, not fraud. [/FONT]
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dlf
1K club
Posts: 1973
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RE: Can a 501c3 give thank you gifts to school staff and/or parent volunteers? 5 Months, 1 Week ago
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Wow--Ciaara--tough love. Of course teachers follow their profession by choice, we all do. But if, like me, you believe that the PTO is there to support the morale of the school as a whole then a token gift of appreciation is a small part of that (certainly not the focus) and keeping our teachers spirits up is good for our children. I'm not talking Godiva chocolates here, but a 5 dollar "cup o joe" on us gift card can make a difference.
I will say that any gifts of substance I buy personally as well, for those I want to thank; but I've always supported a portion of our funds allocated to teacher appreciation. We use them to create gifts on occassion, put together goodie bags and even give a small thank you when we celebrate their profession and their support of our children.
Where you put that money in your budget is up to you--no need to hide your efforts to keep your teachers feeling great about your school.
Just my thoughts.
d
I could have just written "yeah what JHB said".
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RE: Can a 501c3 give thank you gifts to school staff and/or parent volunteers? 5 Months, 1 Week ago
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Our school had entertainment books donated by the company and that is what we gave our teachers at the teacher appreciation luncheon!
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RE: Can a 501c3 give thank you gifts to school staff and/or parent volunteers? 5 Months ago
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When I looked into this years back, the IRS rep told me that this kind of thing was fine as long as it didn't amount to a "substantial" amount of our budget. I don't think there's a rule that defines "substantial", but I doubt you'll get into any trouble with relatively modest gifts. As long as most of your funds are spent on activity that advances your "exempt purpose", you're fine (that's the purpose that your PTO used in its applicaiton for 501c3 status).
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RE: Can a 501c3 give thank you gifts to school staff and/or parent volunteers? 4 Months ago
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One school parent group board I was on had the VP take up a collection of money from all the board members willing to donate and obtained a gift card for the President at the end of the year.
All the other parent group boards I've been a member on had a slated amount they used for a gift card. It varied from $25 to $100 depending on how large a budget/fundraising group they were. The line item area it fell under for accounting was either "Administrative" which was for any office or business expenses, etc. or "Miscellaneous" (which was a useful line item area of our approved budget in case unexpected expenses encurred or the school needed some emergency type funds for something quickly.)
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