What every PTO volunteer ought to know about starting, maintaining, and fundraising for a parent-teacher organization – with Sandy Pfau Englund.
#023 – Today I am speaking with Sandy Pfau Englund. Sandy is a skilled nonprofit and tax law attorney. When parents at her kids’ elementary school recognized her articles, she was recruited to join the PTO.
The PTO did not have its own EIN – it was using the schools. Nor did it have tax exempt status. If you named the list of errors, it was making all of them.
“It was overwhelming for the other volunteers. That’s why I got recruited. You don’t have someone that does tax exempt and non-profit law that’s the mom of the kids in your elementary school. It’s not just an everyday thing.”
That led her to start Parent Booster USA – to help PTAs, PTOs, booster clubs, and chapters remain in compliance with the IRS and state regulators. She wanted to make it easy – at least more accessible for groups to keep up with these regulations.
She has a ton of free resources – her policy is that “for every paid service, we have to have a do it yourself guide” so that if someone wants to be a weekend warrior, they can.
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Resources
Book – School Fundraising – So Much More than Cookie Dough
4 Key Takeaways
#1 Don’t decide who can give and who can’t – let them decide for themselves if they can give or not;
#2 To be eligible for grants, you need to make sure your registration is up to date;
#3 There is no such thing as a tax deductible, Christmas Tree or anything else – if buyer is getting something of value, you need to identify that value for them; AND
#4 Fundraising benefits need to be for the WHOLE group, not for only one individual.
Show Notes
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