Fundraising Policies and Procedures By Development and Alumni Affairs Committee
Saint John’s School Mission Statement: Saint John’s School’s dynamic learning environment fosters the discovery of individual talents and develops students with integrity and compassion who will shape a changing world.
Development & Alumni Committee Mission Statement The Development Committee’s role is to enhance SJS’s dynamic learning environment by addressing fundraising needs, communicating effectively with the entire community, including alumni, and promoting the school.
All fundraising policies should reflect the principles identified in the school’s mission statement.
Purpose of Fundraising Policies and Procedures Saint John’s School is aware of the economic challenges facing our students and parents and the need to have fundraising events to promote community involvement and support class and school fundraising. This policy will offer balance and prevent “donor fatigue” or confusion on the part of donors and prospective donors. The purpose of this policy is to provide: • Clear communication and transparency while managing expectations. • A formalized process and clear guidelines for classes to plan accordingly. • Fundraising efforts in order to balance sponsorship ability to support events with: o Parent capacity to sponsor o Class and Club fundraising needs and school spirit. Fundraising Guidelines for Elementary and Secondary Divisions: • Class fundraising begins in the secondary division. In the elementary division, two fundraising events per semester are allocated for the elementary school student council in order to support spirit week activities for their division. The activity fee will cover expenses for the kindergarten moving up ceremony and graduation fee will cover expenses for the 8th and 12th grade graduations. Any celebrations that take place after the kindergarten moving up events, should be covered by the entrance ticket, not by fundraising initiatives. • Each class/club fundraising request should be submitted by the class or club advisor, to the Dean of Student Life in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Advancement. This should be done with a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks prior to the event/project for review and approval, using the Fundraising Event/Project Form (See Resources). This is done to ensure that our events are aligned with the school’s mission and core values and coordinated so that we do not overload our calendar or our families with fundraising requests. After each request is reviewed, the advisor will be contacted with a decision or with a request for additional information. • When proposing a fundraiser, please keep in mind the following guidelines: o All fundraisers must be aligned with the School’s mission and core values o Keep family budgets and time commitments in mind when selecting fundraisers. o Whenever possible, fundraisers should involve local or green items, with a preference for products our community already purchases (e.g. canned goods, newspapers, etc.) o Fundraisers must adhere to all applicable Federal/State/Local regulations including the collection of sales tax when appropriate, and must also conform to acceptable standards and practices of fundraising. Please see the Director of Institutional Advancement for guidance. • Recommended tips for events or projects: o Have a volunteer strategy. How many volunteers will you need for the project? Who will be contacting prospective volunteers, so you have enough? When will it happen? What is our fallback plan if you don’t have enough volunteers? Know if you will need tax receipts for donations. Know if your event requires insurance. Plan to thank donors for donations (ex. Write follow up thank you notes.) Have a plan for donation accounting. How will donations be collected and accounted for? o In general, think about a “Plan B” for all logistics… What if volunteers don’t show up? What if table rental is more than expected? What if the building can’t be opened? • Plan communications. How will you advertise and communicate your project? Promoting fundraising events via banners, public message board flyers, SJS mass emails or tables outside of the elementary school or in the Hurricane Student Center, must be approved by the class or club advisor, Dean of Student Life and communications specialist, and coordinated by
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the class or club advisor with their board officers. To continue to have data to share with others and to improve upon future fundraising requests, as well as to comply with class fund procedures, results need to be reported via the Profit and Loss Statement (see Resources) within ten days of completion of event. Parents and school employees are not permitted to solicit or fundraise on school grounds. SJS emails will only involve the promotion of approved fundraising events.
Policies for Fundraising for External Nonprofit Organizations: •
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The school will support fundraising for two causes per year on a rotating basis to give the opportunity to various nonprofit entities and causes. The school will educate the students by working with the teachers and integrating the purpose of the cause within the curriculum. Casual days and in school fundraising will only be permitted for these specific causes. Throughout the year, while developing leaders to create change, Saint John’s School encourages students to promote and support causes in ways other than soliciting money by focusing on providing service. Class, clubs and individual student fundraising requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis. Requests must be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to event.
Advisor Roles and Responsibilities: • • • • •
Lead and manage all details related to the successful development and implementation of all class activities. Provide direction, coach, advise and supervise class officers and students. Supervise class treasurer and class board with regard to expenses and fundraising activities. Work closely with class treasurer in depositing funds raised and processing expenses for each activity. Provide a final report for each event. Refer to advisor agreement for additional responsibilities.
Sports Tournament Fundraising: • For details about sports tournament procedures and expectations, please reach out to the athletic director, dean of student life, class advisor, or activities coordinator. Class Fund Procedures: Goal: To have transparency with the Saint John's School community and for members of class boards to understand and manage their class account. Expectations: All parents will receive a general ledger of their child's class (grade level) account once per semester. Operating Account vs. Graduation/Prom Account Each class has been assigned two accounts. 1. Operating Account a. Used for miscellaneous class expenses incurred during the year b. At the beginning of the year the uses for the operating account need to be approved by the dean of student life, advisor, class president, and treasurer. Expenses must not exceed amount assigned for the year when planning events. c. Transparency of funds raised is required. A profit and loss report must be submitted to accounting per fundraising event.
2. Graduation/Prom Account a. Will operate as a savings account for the class b. No payments will be authorized from this account with the exception of 8th and 12 grade prom/graduation expenses. Both accounts will be funded annually according to the following allocation of the activity fee which is automatically billed to students each year:
Grade
Operating Account
PPK
$
PK KD 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Graduation / Prom Account
40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 30 30 30 30 30 30
$
60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 120 120 120 120 120 320
Total Activity Fee $
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 150 150 150 150 150 350
Funds from the Graduation/Prom Account will be assigned to Kinder, 8th and 12th grade graduating classes. Amounts will vary from year to year. • Class advisors are responsible for contacting the Business Office at the beginning of each academic year to request the amount assigned to their class before engaging in any contracts. These funds are assigned specifically for expenses related to the graduation ceremony and are NOT to be used for Prom or other class activities (i.e. class bonding, class pictures, etc.) • Class treasurers are responsible to request an account statement at the beginning of each academic year, to review the expense results from the previous year as well as the beginning balance. A monthly statement should be requested at the Business Office in order to monitor the account activity. Statements can be requested via email to businessoffice@sjspr.org. • Contracts for vendors or professional services can only be signed by the Head of School, in order to comply with the school insurance in case of any incident. • All payments related to professional services or vendor contracts must be processed through the Business Office in order to comply with the Puerto Rico tax and social security requirement. Staff, faculty or parents are not authorized to pay professional services or vendor contracts with out of pocket or petty cash. Failure to do so will result in no reimbursement of expense. For example, if you rent a tent or hire a music band the payment needs to be processed through the Business Office. Outside Accounts: Class accounts outside of the school are STRICTLY PROHIBITED. 1. All payments for class activities MUST be issued from the Saint John's School authorized class account. 2. If the school confirms that a class is not following class fund procedures, all privileges of using
the school's name, facilities, community and fundraising development for any event will be lost. 3. It is prohibited to raise class funds via the sale of alcohol or other illegal substances, to minors or the sale of admission to alcohol related events to minors. Check Requests and Petty Cash: It is important to follow procedure in order to avoid unnecessary delays in the process. There will be a weekly check run each Wednesday. 1. All check and petty cash requests must be received by the Business Office by Monday before noon in order to be processed that week. 2. If petty cash is requested, the class treasurer will need to provide all original receipts/invoices for which the petty cash was utilized. The class account will be frozen until receipts and report are provided. All petty cash advances must be requested at least one day prior to the activity to ensure availability of funds. 3. All check requests must be signed by the class treasurer, president, advisor and dean of student life. 4. Checks will be mailed, distributed or available for pickup on the Friday following the check run. 5. Activities planned in advance (i.e. bonding activities, graduations, field-trips, seminars, etc.) must adhere to the procedures, requesting checks and payments in advance. Activities held on school grounds 1. Activities that are hosted outside of normal working hours, result in additional costs for the School, notably in the areas of personnel and utilities. To recover some of these extra costs, a contribution of 10% of the net proceeds of these fundraising activities must be paid to the school. a. This contribution will be applicable only to activities for which the school is required to open beyond its regular schedule of 7:00am-6:00pm. b. The Business Office should be notified by the class advisor prior to any class activity held outside regular hours. c. At the end of each activity the class advisor and class treasurer must submit a signed report informing the results of the activity in order to determine the 10% contribution. Amounts reported must tie-in to the activity in the class account. These reports can also be submitted via email to businessoffice@sjspr.org. d. Donations made for ads are not subject to the 10% fee. 2. Activities held during regular school hours will not be subject to the contribution. If activities are not reported as required, the Business Office will assume all activities occurred beyond regular hours and a 10% fee will be assessed based on the account’s net change for the year.