Barrett community members,
About a year ago, Melanie Jones and I began a fundraising drive as part of our grocery gift card distribution effort to support Barrett families financially impacted by the pandemic. Our grocery gift card distribution effort was initiated by a donation we received from a GoFundMe effort, "One Pantry at a Time", led by Arlington teachers Deborah Waldron and Aaron Schuetz.
Because the K.W. Barrett PTA is a 501(c)3 public charity, IRS rules prohibit the PTA from raising, collecting, and distributing funds (including gift cards) for the purpose of financially assisting individuals or families. Specifically, guidance from the Virginia PTA (April 10, 2020) stated that:
"The IRS is very clear that a public charity may not gift funds to individuals or families unless that is what the charity was organized to do. PTAs are not organized for that purpose, so we may not give money - including gift cards - to individuals or families in our school communities, regardless of need."
As such, beginning in early April 2020, Melanie and I began to raise funds separate from (and outside of) our PTA funds/checking account to supplement the gift cards received from One Pantry at a Time and continue to provide grocery gift cards to Barrett families. We eventually moved away from gift card distribution after guidance from the County Council of PTAs (CCPTA) allowing the use of PTA funds to support distribution efforts of non-cash/non-gift card items, such as food products, cleaning products, and school supplies, among other items.
After three rounds of grocery gift card distributions (on April 8, May 6, and June 9), the fundraising effort to the NON-PTA funds was closed out as the Barrett PTA, at a monthly meeting on June 11, approved a budget line item for "FOOD PANTRY" in which donations could be made to the PTA to support our distribution efforts – as grocery gift cards were no longer to be part of any future distributions.
The attached memo serves to provide transparency – and an accounting – for our community in detailing our NON-PTA fundraising and grocery gift card distribution effort from April through June 2020. It provides a detailing of the amount of money raised and how the funds were used.
Please contact us if you have any questions or would like additional information. A list of all donors, copies of receipts for expenditures, etc., are available upon request.
We are thankful for the trust you gave us and the generosity of our school community to help Barrett families throughout this pandemic.
Thank you,
Will Le and Melanie Jones
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