That really is not a good practice for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that tracking everything puts a very significant demand on the treasurer. Another one: What happens if you disagree on how much money you are "holding" for one of those other programs? Things could get ugly.
You would be much better off making each of these PTO programs and funding them from your own budget. You could let the same people be responsible for organizing and running them, but the PTO would handle the finances just the same as it would for any other PTO program. That would put a lot less pressure on the treasurer, and it would allow you to be more strategic about fundraisers. You might choose, for example, to run a couple of large fundraisers to pay for these programs rather than having several small ones that might create fundraising fatigue among parents.
This setup is also good for the current organizers of those activities, even though they might not initially see it that way. You can take some of the fundraising pressure off of them, and the PTO is in a better position to create consistent funding for these programs. Right now, if a program raises less money, it has a smaller budget. The PTO has more flexibility to use other funds to keep the program going at the level that makes sense.
- Craig
Links in this post: