How to Handle Your Fundraising Money Properly

How to properly reconcile the money you collect.

There’s more to fundraising than just raising money. You’ll also need to know how to properly manage and protect your money. You should first sit down with your board members and discuss what projects you hope to fund and how much these items will cost. This may require research, but it will be well worth the effort.

You can then set a goal budget based on the financial numbers that you come up with. This will give you a benchmark that will allow you to assess your progress throughout the school year and make budgetary adjustments as needed. Here are some additional ideas that will allow you to handle your fundraising money properly.

Document Your Earnings

Creating an efficient and workable paper trail for all your expenditures is important. Make sure to have reimbursement and check request forms for volunteers to use. It’s also important to use cash deposit receipts after any fundraisers so you can record the money that’s been collected. In addition, make your forms accessible online so your volunteers can easily download them.

Reconcile Fundraising Money Regularly

If you don’t inspect and adjust your accounting records consistently, you may have a mess on your hands. Be sure to set a periodic task to verify your reported balance with your bank account. If you don’t do your due diligence, you’ll have to rely on what the bank reports. It’s a good idea to assign someone to double-check your records.

Your treasurer should also prepare monthly reports for your board members. It should show the beginning and ending balance and withdrawal or deposit transactions. For additional information, visit ptotoday.com.

Coordinate Your Financial Procedures

To ensure everyone’s on the same page, run through the dos and don’ts of handling all fundraiser money. People should know how to receive money properly, count deposits, and use the deposit form. You should also make it a requirement to have more than one person present whenever you’re counting money. Finally, set a deposit deadline of 24 hours after your event.

And whenever you make a payment, ensure that two people sign the checks. This provides additional accountability.

Handle Bounced Checks

You should also have a policy in place to handle bad checks. It’s bound to happen, especially with larger groups. We provide insufficient funds notices in our fundraising guidebook for our sponsors so they can copy and send them out case-by-case. There are right and wrong ways to handle this, so deal with it directly and discretely.

Find the Right Bank

Banks can charge fees for such things as falling below a minimum balance or exceeding a certain number of transactions for a given month. Be sure to find a bank that will best meet your needs. Occasionally, banks will waive fees for nonprofit organizations.

It’s important to have proper procedures in place to get the most out of handling your fundraising money.

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Author Bio

Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He’s helped administrators, teachers, and outside support entities such as PTAs and PTOs raise millions of dollars. Clay is an owner and partner at Big Fundraising Ideas.