I'm going to disagree with gjcorum on this one. We don't run money through our accounts for stuff like Pennies for Patients /Relay for Life / Jump Rope for Heart because it is fundraising for an organization whose mission does not match our own. We're not in the heart disease research business, for example. Our school district doesn't allow the money to run through the schools' accounts for the same reason.
We do provide volunteers to help with those events, but we don't deal with the money. Checks are usually written directly by parents to those other organizations and bypass the PTO completely.
Our students have raised funds for the Heart Association (Jump Rope for Heart) and Leukemia & Lymphoma society. Since it's the students doing the fundraising and there's an educational component, I feel that this is a reasonable part of our activities.
we are working toward 501(c)3 status. traditionally, other groups (such as relay for life, etc.) have raised funds at the school and done them under the PTO account.
i'm assuming that may be a big no-no? raising funds for a different nonprofit under our accounting? i don't know...we are all new at this and trying to figure all these legal and financial stuff out.
