PTO Today

Hi. We currently have a PTA and will probably be switching to a PTA next year - mostly because of the cut that the State and National PTA takes. I had what I hope are pretty straightforward questions:

1. If we have funds in our PTA account, can these go towards the $700.00 fee to become a 501c3 PTO? It seems like this would not be legit.

2. If we do not have funds in the PTA account, either because we spend it down or it's already spent, can we fundraise for the $700.00 501c3 fee before we actually have that status? I'm guessing we can form the PTO, open a bank account (we'd at least need to incorporate or have an EIN for that, no?), raise funds and then apply for 501c3 status.

3. Any idea how long it takes to attain 501c3 and incorporated status? I thought I read a post somewhere here that it took about 18 months, but now can't find that post.

I think that's it. Thanks for the space.
Tim

Hi Tim -

I can answer the first two, and I'll defer to someone who's been through it more recently on the third (it varies by current backlog).

1. Maybe. Not sure. But more importantly, the answer to number 2 (below) suggests that you don't have to worry about it.

2. Definitely yes. You can apply for your 501c3 anytime within (12 or 18, I forget as I sit here) months of your new start date, and -- provided you apply within that window -- your nonprofit status is granted retroactively to your start date. So you can definitely start up your PTO, start some of your fundraisers and then apply. In fact, that's the common scenario.

Hope that helps.

Tim

I will try with the answer to number three! From the time we started our incorporation in our state to the time we received our 501 status was around three months. Now I have been told that is a short amount of time, as far as the the time between sending the paperwork to the IRS and getting our status it was like five weeks. If you really take your time and dot your i's and cross those t's then it will be alot easier. I actually got all the help I needed with the questions on this forum!! The more accurate your paperwork is the less time it will take, if they receive it and it isn't complete then you get into the phone calls and correspondence cycle.

We were slowed up with our state incoporation because we have our school's name in our groups name and that had to be approved by the NYS Dept of Education! Just make sure to incorporate first if you are planning on it because to go back and do it is very costly!
Good Luck! It isn't as bad as it seems!

__________________
"When you stop learning you stop growing."

I agree with pals. When someone talks about the longer time, they are often including the organizational time of things like developing bylaws - which can drag on for months if you let it. But the actual turn-around time for the IRS filing and response was about 6 weeks for us.

Note - you do need to handle the incorporation first, then the IRS filing (if you plan to do both).