Basic advice please from experienced PTA committee members

[isa2]

Very grateful for advice from people with experience of being on a PTA. We are a very new PTA but have already raised a reasonable amount of money, become a charity and opened a bank account. We are trying to work out how to spend our money. School is an academy with financial processes quite tied up in a federation. When PTAs pay for things, do you usually do so by giving money to the school to spend on agreed targets or by paying directly from PTA account? We would like to pay for things like tuning the school piano, new shelves, a drumkit. Do people advise paying directly from the PTA charity bank account or giving the money to the school to make payments. Thanks!

I was a pta treasurer (small primary and many years ago) we only spent on things that were in line with our constitution.

Everything went through the minutes (so was discussed if it fit our guidelines).
Regarding payment the school passed the invoice to me to pay (except when we were giving a donation towards something eg subsidising a school trip) in which case we would pay direct to school and they'd obviously send a receipt. So a trail of all money could be seen.
Have you talked to the school about how best to proceed? The most important things are a paper trail and to be in line with your constitution.

The school usually paid for things and then gave us the invoice and we paid them back.

We get a bill every year from the finance administration and pay it by card. We decide each year how much we will pay towards trips for each year group and extra activities so it’s not a big suprise bill.

We raised money and asked the school what they needed to buy. Be careful that it gets spent whilst your kids are in the school so they get some benefit! And def need a treasurer account - should probably be on the charity commission list too. We also tried to pay for things which would benefit a wide a group of people as possible ie not just sixth form, or specific clubs as it seemed fairer like that

We agree yearly funding targets at the AGM in consultation with the school.
We do a yearly £1000 to the library.
then in the past the targets have included fundraising for new early years playground equipment, CETV for the school, a new sound system for the hall, resurfacing the playground, certain equipment etc. , a refurb of a classroom, etc

Some big targets we have raised over 2 years. We know what we roughly raise each year so assign targets in line with that.

We did a 'bids' round.
Via the staff rep departments were asked to submit bids for what they wanted. We weighed them up and decided what to fund. Sometimes we could find things cheaper by clever methods.
We aimed for

• capital not transitory
• impacting good number of pupils
• departments who hadn't had stuff recently.

School then bought and invoiced us.

And sorry yes we paid school direct on production of invoice or pay invoice direct if requested. Usually we would see quotes for the work before agreeing target so there was a paper trail on what we were fundraising for.

In a primary school so might be a bit different. We are not a charity but set up in line with our council guidelines and have a not for profit account.

We try and find a balance between things for school and experiences for the children. E.g. we have paid for classroom flooring, stationary, blinds. We also fund Christmas parties by food and juice, selection boxes for everyone and Santa presents for younger years. Christmas events such as pantomime coming into school and summer fun day with bouncy castles etc.

Some things we buy directly and others school organise and we pay the invoice.

Thanks! So it sounds like a mixture of just purchasing things directly (is that easier with smaller things maybe?) and the school getting an invoice and passing it on to the pta? Is it frequent for PTAs just to hand over the money they have raised to the school to spend? Some of our committee think we should give the school the money to spend but I'm not sure that is how it should work or that the school would be able to easily manage the money.

I absolutely wouldn't just hand the money over to the school.
Money has come from parents and it is the PTA's responsibility to see it gets spent appropriately.
It should be added value not essentials.

And I'm thinking a state schoolihht find it practically difficult to administer PTA funds even if we tell them what we would like them to spend them on?

Google 'parentkind' - they are a brilliant organisation filled with excellent resources and your PTA should consider joining. Well worth the money. They also have insurance which you need unless you have another policy. They will talk you through stuff on the phone if you want them too and have a Facebook group.

Hello yes we have a subscription. It is very helpful though to understand what people do in practice as there is a range of views in our committee on how to proceed.

We often bought physical things and attached a plaque telling people that it was purchased by the PTA because if they can see where the money is going they are more likely to donate. The downside to gifting an impressive item is if it then means the school has to spend annually to maintain it - it's a bit of a poisoned chalice then.

We used to ask the school / departments what they wanted. The music department always seemed to need something🙄, unlike others e.g. Maths.

Is there something in your constitution which tells you how to spend the money? If not, why not!

If you are paying for a musical instrument for the school, it may be better to give a cash donation to the school for them to make the purchase. Not sure how it works with academies but local authority schools can buy instruments without the VAT under the Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme. (assuming you are in the UK) whereas the PTA would have to pay VAT

Not just instruments, almost anything.
Which is why we
. Agreed purchase
. School bought
. School invoiced us
. We gave them a cheque.

Recently the current committee saved £££ by sourcing pre owned vgc text books off Ebay or similar, rather than buying new.

Do people advise paying directly from the PTA charity bank account or giving the money to the school to make payments.
On a practical note, if the school buys and you reimburse then the onus is on them. If you buy directly there is a chance that you might buy the wrong size / version / edition / whatever.

Hi thanks! Regarding constitution, we have one and have plans for targets, some of which we have already achieved. The thing we hadn't specified was the mechanics of purchasing stuff and whether to do this ourselves, get the school to do it and give us an invoice to pay or transfer the money to the school for them to make the payment. Seems like people do a mixture but mostly the first two?

You want to keep control of the process (Headteachers can try to throw their weight about. Maybe not your current one but what about the next one?) Definitely do not give money in advance in the hope that the school does what it is supposed to. Get them to buy (good point above about VAT considerations) and then you reimburse on receiving a copy of the invoice.

If your school isn’t already get registered for easyfundraising, it’s easy for parents and racks up throughout the year.

Don’t just give money to the school, you needs a paper trail and parents give funds to the PTFA to fund extras for their children not a petty cash stash for the school.