Ah, another awesome fundraising year completed. Summer’s arrived and you and your fellow PTA/O members are ready for a well-deserved vacation. But before you set off with your sunglasses and suitcase, make sure to schedule one last important fundraising activity: an annual audit of your school fundraising.
In this blog, you’ll learn more about:
An annual audit is something every PTA/O should do to make sure their budget and books are in order before the new school year. Usually this annual audit covers every aspect of the PTA/O’s finances over the course of the fiscal year. So, a large part of the audit should include your school fundraising efforts. It might not sound fun, but when done right, performing an audit actually makes your life as a PTA/O leader so much easier. Not only does it provide a clear picture of the PTA/O’s financial health, but it also gives you an opportunity to evaluate the results of your fundraisers according to your original financial goals.
Keep reading to learn the benefits of performing an annual school fundraising audit.
A huge part of the PTA/O’s activities throughout the year involve spending and raising money. Keeping careful track of the money going in and out not only makes your job as a PTA/O leader or volunteer easier and gives you peace of mind, but it also makes your efforts more efficient and effective. The more aware you are of your budget, available funds, recordkeeping processes, vendor relationships, and more, the easier it is to plan for your next financial year.
It’s important for any entity that spends money and holds fundraisers to earn the trust of the school community, including the school board, administration, and of course potential donors. After all, the PTA/O is responsible for using donors’ money wisely! Performing an annual audit ensures that the PTA/O is upholding its duties to the school community by keeping a clean house.
An annual audit covers all aspects of the PTA/O’s financial activity, not just school fundraising - but the benefits for your school fundraising activities are enormous. An annual audit of how much money was raised through each event or campaign and how that money was spent provides valuable insights into your fundraising efforts the next year. This way you know what worked well, what didn’t, and how to make improvements or capitalize on successes next year.
Evaluating the effectiveness of your school fundraising efforts should be a part of your larger PTA/O annual audit. Consider the following to get the most out of your school fundraising audit:
This depends on how your PTA/O handles its overall finances. Some schools hire a CPA to perform their annual audit, while others form a volunteer committee from their own ranks. To keep the audit impartial, PTO Today recommends a group of three to five people who have not had access to the PTA/O’s finances, ideally officers such as the vice president or secretary. The CPA or audit committee will then review all records related to the PTA/O’s budget and funds, including but not limited to:
To glean useful information about your fundraising efforts in particular, make sure that the auditor(s) are provided with the above types of records for each event or campaign.
Once provided with records of each fundraising event, including checks, bank statements, contracts with vendors, donor records, and anything else in the list above, auditors should review these documents to determine and evaluate:
Remember, the goal of your audit is to get a clear picture of what money was spent and gained, how it was spent or gained, and who spent it or brought it in. With these details, you can then go on to determine how effective your school fundraising has been and how you can improve it in the future.
The best time to perform the annual audit is after the end of the school fundraising year, typically mid- to late summer. If you use an audit committee, make sure these volunteers are willing and able to meet about twice during this time of year to perform the annual audit. It might not sound like the most fun way to spend some of your summer vacation, but PTA/O leaders and volunteers will be so much happier next year knowing all the books are in order.
Plus, the annual audit doesn’t have to be boring! Consider making it part of a PTA/O retreat or party so that volunteers can socialize, relax, and bond a little while doing this important job.
Hopefully the annual audit of your school fundraising shows a squeaky clean record and leaves your PTA/O leaders feeling proud of their work and confident for the year to come. But that’s not the only benefit you can hope to gain from a school fundraising audit. One of the most important outcomes from an annual audit is that you can use the insights to determine the effectiveness of your fundraising efforts, including what worked and what didn’t.
So, how can you use these insights to have even more success next year?
Make sure that your annual audit evaluates each fundraising event from the past year against its original goals. Did the event go over-budget? Did you raise or exceed the amount you hoped to raise, or did you fall short? Use the answers to these questions to adjust your efforts the following year. This is why it’s so important to determine the goals of your event or campaign every time you organize a school fundraiser.
Are there any patterns that emerge over the course of the school year? For example, do certain types of school fundraisers routinely earn more (or less) than others? Do you notice an increase or decrease in participation/donations across your school fundraisers over time?
These types of patterns can prompt you to reflect on how well you’re following school fundraising best practices, explored further in the following section.
Though an annual school fundraising audit focuses on the numbers, you can use your financial insights to take your evaluation a step further. Once you have a picture of which school fundraisers were the most financially successful and which ones left something to be desired, you can look at the details of the fundraising event and think about why certain events worked better than others.
For example, let’s say your audit reveals that your spring school fundraisers routinely earn less money than your fall fundraisers. When you dig deeper into the records for those lower-earning spring campaigns, you also notice that each event had fewer and fewer volunteers than the last. This pattern could indicate one of a couple of possible problems, such as:
Consider each of the following aspects of school fundraising to determine where you shined and where you can improve next year:
With your audit results and last year’s fundraising records in hand, it’s time to put what you learned to use for next year. Every PTA/O will have its own unique lessons to take into their future school fundraisers. But no matter your results, every school can benefit from revisiting a few basic school fundraising best practices.
If your annual audit of your school fundraisers shows room for growth, the experts at Booster can help your school make great strides this school year. Learn more here!