Hello,

I am PTA president of a very small high school (about 150 students). Our one and only function as PTA is to raise funds to "donate" to the student council for a simple prom that all students of all four grades are invited to attend for free. That is literally all we do.

I have been researching switching to a PTO because this year, after dues & fundraising, we sent the state over half of our money raised for the mandated dues, spent another $400 on insurance, and now have less than $400 left for the prom fund. In other words, 1/4 of what we raised actually is going toward the actual goal of our organization's existence.

My question is this:
Seeing as how we have such a small budget (less than $1500 total income this year), and since we donate the balance after insurance to the student council to use for the prom, do we actually need the 501c3 filing? This will cost us another $400 for startup, and as you can see, this is a significant part of our budget.

If we do need it, what can I say to help members understand the need for this expense, which will be about 1/4 of our budget? What benefits will it give us?

Thank you for any help & advice.