I am co-president (3 year officer) of a PTO at a school with under 200 kids. In the past 2 years we have made great strides and earned a considerable amount more on our fundraisers as well as spending less by applying for grants and utilizing local businesses. We have parents who (not openly of course) are complaining about our balance and that we need to spend the money. We rarely turn down a money request and constantly ask for new ideas on how to spend money.
On one hand I see that these parents think if they earned the money, their children should benefit. However, we are not stockpiling and they are benefiting- we have more money because we spent less.
Very frustrating and just wondered what others might think or if any have been in similar situation.

I think you should have goals for your money. That doesn't mean you should spend it to zero, or be wasteful, but if you have a large amount and no goal, then I can understand parents getting frustrated that you are fundraising and their child is seeing no benefit from it. No matter how you've raised the money (and congrats for doing what you've done with grants etc), the balance is what you have for the children. Don't be wasteful but with the parents brainstorm on what you can do for the kids while maintaining a balance that will carry over to the next year in a way that will keep the group solvent.
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When Our PTO has an excess of Money and we can't think what to use it on. then we donate it to the school. THe principal then decidesWhat to do with it. Whether to split it with all the teachers. Or to purchase one big item that the whole school could use. Melissa

I am not sure if you have a newsletter or not but it may be a good idea to list the things you are purchasing and it's cost. For example 150.00 for Library books etc. Maybe the parents just don't realize you are spending in addition to having a generous balance. If no newsletter you could always send out a flyer and ask for ideas from parents on enrichment programs they might like. etc. and let them know what you have been doing with the money raised.

If you have money then you should put it back into the school some how. there are lots of things you could be doing with the money to make parents feel like their kids are going to benifit from the hard work they put into it.

We are called the forces at our schools but it's the same at pto. We use the money we make for the kids activies like sometimes we pay for a field trip, we have helped pay for mulch for the playgrounds. Your making money for the kids right - so if you have funds you should see what they could be used for.