1. Gifting

2. Prior to Gifting: Presidents
Review and understand your budget line items!
Programs/activities predetermined to occur during the school year by your Principal/Executive Board should be line items in your budget – not Gifting requests
Review school supply/copy requests with your Executive Board
If you are not comfortable paying for these, work with your Principal to find alternative solutions
Ensure allocated budget line items account for actual needs
Review with VPs/Chairs as necessary
Meet with your Principal and Gifting Chair to discuss a gifting plan
Discuss a “gifting vision” with your Executive Board
Provide vision to the Gifting Committee as a guide
Review your Standing Rules in your Bylaws re: Gifting
Understand the Fiduciary Agreement process at your school
Ensure the Treasurer and Gifting Chair also understand the process

3. Prior to Gifting: Treasurers
Know and understand your budget line items
If an approved budget line item can be used to fund a Gifting request, use it!
Understand budget line items vs. unallocated funding
Understand the Fiduciary Agreement process at your school
Identify unallocated funding to be released as Gifting funds – review and ensure approval by the President prior to release

4. Role of President Appoint the Gifting Chair
Recommend/appoint Gifting Committee members subject to ratification by the Executive Board
Ensure Standing Rule requirements are met
Ensure committee is representative of your school environment – i.e., try not to load the committee with Executive Board members, include representatives from each grade level, include parents of resource/GATE/etc. students
Work with Treasurer to identify available Gifting funds – understand them prior to releasing at your Executive Board and General meetings

5. Role of President
Review the gifting requests prior to the Gifting committee meeting
Review the Gifting report prior to Gifting Chair dissemination at Executive Board and Association meetings
Ensure quorum at Executive Board and Association meetings
Ensure meeting minutes are accurate (Executive and Association) regarding Gifting report
Fiduciary Agreement!

6. Role of Chairperson Appointed by the PTA president
Meets with President to determine strategy for sending out gifting requests
May or may not meet with the principal, as determined by the president.
Sends out gifting requests upon approval of President and Principal
Sets the date of the gifting meeting(s)
Creates a handout for the committee with a summary of the gifting requests in a format approved by the President
This should be given out at the meeting and not ed. This is a confidential document.
Review confidentiality of requests with committee members
Create & present the Gifting report to Exec Board and Association meeting
Ensure Gifting Report is signed by Gifting committee members
Copies of Gifting Report:
Original given to the recording secretary; copy given to the President

7. Gifting Committee Process
Read your standing rules on who should be on the committee.
Should include at least one member who is not on the Executive Board.
Make sure principal is involved!
Committee should determine:
How gifting can impact the most students.
Take into consideration the gifting plan from previous years.
All members should vote or reach a consensus on the items to be gifted.
Committee members should make sure they sign the gifting report.
Committee work should be confidential and unbiased.
All gifting handouts should be left with the gifting chair at the end of each meeting.

8. Executive Board Approval
Gifting report should be ed before the board meets for review.
Give a presentation (chair or president) on the gifting process & detail report.
Chair makes a motion for the Executive Board to approve the gifting report as presented and make sure the motion includes a grand total amount or an amount that is not to be exceeded.
Board cannot change the gifting report.
They could choose to not approve of a specific item and approve the rest as written.
They should not approve the report if they are not in agreement or want changes (besides the deletion).
Changes must be sent back to the committee with a recommendation by the board.
Once the Executive Board approves the gifting report as presented then the report goes to the association for approval.

9. Association Approval
Chair presents the Gifting Committee report to the association and makes a motion.
Example of the motion," I move that to approve the recommendations of the gifting committee with funds paying for: not to exceed a total of $ ...“
If the motion is approved by the association
Remember to make a motion to release the funds.
Submit the original signed gifting report to the Recording Secretary and a copy to the President.

10. PTA Funds
Fundraising - is raising money to finance PTA programs and projects.
The 3-to-1 Rule:
there should be at least three non-fundraising programs aimed at helping parents or children or advocating for school improvements, for every one fundraiser.
Money for gifting:
Money collected in excess of what was budgeted
example: $ budgeted for direct donation campaign but $ was donated.
Money not spent on events that have already taken place
example: $ budgeted for registration but only $ was spent.
CAUTION: make sure all receipts have been turned in for the completed event before you use the unspent funds for gifting.

11. Financial Procedures Make sure the gifting funds are released!!
As gifting money is disbursed from the treasury, you can add those funds to the gifting line item on your budget. It should have had a zero balance on your budget.
A fiduciary agreement should be completed and signed for any check written to PVPUSD.
When changes happen to what was gifted:
The treasurer needs to inform the president
The president and principal should discuss
If the discrepancy is substantially different than the items approved, the gifting committee should meet and discuss a remedy.
Nominal amount overages can be brought to the board and they can consider using funds already in the budget to cover the overage.

12. FIDUCIARY AGREEMENT PROCESS
Each time the PTA unit writes a check up front to the District, a PTA payment authorization/check request form and a Fiduciary Agreement MUST be attached to the check and submitted to the school (usually to the Office Manager.)
The School will fill out the District paperwork and then submit all forms to the District for processing. The PTA unit will receive a signed copy back from the District.
Any request must be fulfilled by June 1 of each year to allow time to return any unused funds to the PTA prior to June 30 so the PTA has time to close their books.
The school & PTA unit should monitor if funds need to be returned.
If the District needs to return unused funds to the PTA Unit, the school will need to submit a requisition to the District by June 9, and a warrant will be issued to the PTA.
PTA unit should monitor if funds need to be returned and request refund with the school.

13. Fiduciary Agreement
Sample Fiduciary

14. From the California PTA toolkit
Fiduciary Agreements and Gifts to School
PTA programs promoting parent education, home and school cooperation, children’s well-being, community betterment, and funding for education must have first call on PTA funds. However, when a PTA is asked to purchase or provide materials for the local school, it is necessary to follow certain guidelines so that the gift will be acceptable to both the PTA membership and the school district.
When making gifts, a Fiduciary Agreement should be completed by the PTA and signed by all involved so that all parties acknowledge and agree to gift restrictions. If a Fiduciary Agreement is not completed, gifts to the school that are accepted by the school district become the property of that district and can be moved or used at any school within the school district.
Certain gifts, such as funding for field trips, enrichment programs, teacher aides, special instructors, books, classroom supplies, or major equipment purchases, require prior approval from the PTA membership, school principal, and school district. Many school districts have policies and regulations on accepting gifts. Be sure to check with the school district before purchasing any materials or gifting funds to the school.
PTA members must approve all expenditures of funds, including the amount of monies to be used for gifts to the school, prior to the expenditure of those funds. This approval must come in the form of a motion and vote at a meeting of the membership and must be recorded in the association minutes of the meeting. Since PTA membership is new each year, funds cannot be committed from one year to the next unless funds were raised for a specific purpose and are therefore restricted. One example might be funds raised over three years for a major purchase. If restricted funds are not used for their designated purpose the funds must be returned to the donors or the donors must agree to the new purpose.
A gift to the school should benefit the largest number of students possible. Gifts should be in the form of a donation, presented and accepted by the school board at a school board meeting and recorded in the school board minutes. This ensures the school district will assume responsibility for the liability, maintenance and upkeep of any equipment purchased. Check with the school district to determine whether it is better to donate money for any equipment and have the district purchase the item(s) instead of the PTA purchasing the item(s) and then gifting them to the school.
At the first association meeting following the acceptance of the gift by the school board, a description of what was given to the school district must be noted again, and the date the school board accepted the gift must be recorded in the PTA association minutes.
The school district is subject to fiduciary responsibility. If the school district accepts money or equipment that is given subject to a restriction, then the restriction must be honored or the law will impose personal liability on the officers or trustees of the school district in their individual capacities. It is possible that the law would merely require the refund of the gift not used for the restricted purpose. The law does not do that automatically – there must be a complaint filed with the school district by the donor.
If the school district or any recipient is not willing to honor the restrictions on use which accompany a charitable contribution, then the recipient must decline to accept the gift. There is no duty of any recipient of an offered charitable gift to actually accept the gift if there is a restriction attached.

15. Funds Not Used
NO GIFTING AGREEMENTS ARE CARRIED OVER TO THE NEW FISCAL YEAR!!!! NO CHECKS CAN BE WRITTEN DURING THE SUMMER (after June 30) TO PAY FOR ITEMS GIFTED BEFORE JUNE 30th.
Once the new PTA year begins, any agreements from the previous board and association are no longer valid.
Procedure for gifted items that will not be purchased before the end of June.

16. Questions ?