Can a PTA Donate to a Ballot Measure or Political Campaign?

A PTA can never support or oppose a candidate or a political party. Ballot measures are different. The IRS treats a school bond, levy, or other ballot measure as lobbying, which a PTA may do in limited amounts. With a vote, a budget line, and attention to state reporting rules, a PTA can give to a campaign for a school measure.

I served as a PTA treasurer for three years across two school districts and trained the treasurers who came after me. I’ve been on PTA boards that voted to give money to a ballot measure, that officially supported one, and that shared information about one with families. Each situation was different and needed its own care.

This guide covers federal tax rules and National PTA’s policy. It is not legal advice. Your state PTA’s guidance and your state’s election laws add their own requirements.

Candidates and parties: never

Almost every PTA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The IRS prohibits 501(c)(3)s from participating or intervening, directly or indirectly, in any campaign for or against a candidate for public office. There is no dollar threshold and no exception for local races.

That rules out:

• contributions to a candidate or a party
• endorsements in the PTA’s name
• partisan statements by PTA leaders at PTA meetings or events, or in the newsletter
• spending PTA money or using its email list for a candidate

The penalties fall on the PTA and its leaders. A PTA can lose its tax exemption. The IRS can also charge an excise tax of 10% of the political spending, plus 2.5% of it, up to $5,000, on any manager who knowingly agreed to it.

Board members are still citizens. They can volunteer for a campaign, donate their own money, and put a sign in their yard, as long as they do it as individuals and don’t speak for the PTA.

Ballot measures: allowed, as lobbying

A ballot measure puts a question to the voters, so the IRS counts it as legislation and a message urging a yes or no vote as lobbying. School bonds, levies, parcel taxes, and initiatives all fall here.

A 501(c)(3) may lobby as long as lobbying is not a substantial part of its activities. National PTA’s guidance follows the same line: a PTA may support or oppose a ballot measure in alignment with PTA’s mission, purpose, resolutions, and positions. Its total lobbying must stay insubstantial.

How much is “insubstantial.” The IRS judges it on all the facts and circumstances, and it counts volunteer time as well as money. It gives no percentage. Some PTA guidance mentions 5% as a rule of thumb, but that figure is not from the IRS.

A clear limit instead. A PTA can make the 501(h) election by filing Form 5768 with the IRS. Lobbying is then measured in dollars: 20% of the PTA’s exempt-purpose spending on the first $500,000, with a lower share above that. Within the total, no more than a quarter can go to grassroots lobbying, meaning asking the public to contact legislators. Under the election, a message urging voters to vote yes or no on a ballot measure counts as direct lobbying, because the voters are the legislature. Some state PTAs recommend the election to their units.

Is it the best use of PTA money?

The rules say what a PTA may do. Whether it should is a separate decision, and I’d treat it as a proceed-with-caution one.

A PTA’s strength is bringing people and money together to do what families couldn’t do on their own. A group of parents would struggle to fund 30 classrooms fairly, or put on a fall festival or a spring carnival. A campaign donation is different. Any family can give to a campaign on its own, as easily as the PTA can, and without waiting for a vote or a budget line. Money the PTA gives is also money it won’t spend on its programs, so a few questions help:

• What does the measure need? If your community nearly always passes school bonds, a PTA donation may change little, and the same money could go further in a classroom.
• Who gave the money? Families donated to the PTA for its programs. Some may not want any of it going to a political campaign, even one for their own school.
• What happens to future giving? Politics divides people. A member who feels the PTA took a side may give less, or stop giving, in the years after.

Sharing factual information about a measure, covered below, carries far less of that risk, and it has no lobbying limit.

Before the PTA gives money

A ballot measure contribution is PTA money like any other, so it goes through the same authorization as any expense, with a few additions.

1. Study the measure and take a vote. State PTAs typically expect the board or the membership to study the issue and vote to support it before the PTA joins a campaign. A membership vote is the safer choice. Some state PTAs require one before any money is given. Record the motion in the minutes.
2. Check it against PTA positions. The position can’t conflict with PTA’s mission or with National PTA’s or your state PTA’s adopted positions and resolutions.
3. Put it in the budget. Spending needs a budget line the membership adopted, plus the usual release of funds. A mid-year contribution means a budget amendment at an association meeting. The expense approvals guide covers how spending gets authorized.
4. Check state campaign finance rules. Giving to a ballot measure committee can make the PTA a reporting donor. In California, for example, an organization that gives $10,000 or more in a calendar year to ballot measure committees becomes a major donor and files its own reports. Thresholds and forms vary by state, so check with your Secretary of State or elections office.
5. Keep the school district out of it. School districts generally can’t use public funds, staff, or facilities to urge a yes or no vote, which is one reason parent groups often run or fund these campaigns. Persuasion goes through PTA and campaign channels. District communication channels, such as school newsletters, take-home flyers, and district websites, carry factual information only.

Collecting donations for the campaign. A PTA can encourage families to give to the campaign committee directly. State PTA guidance keeps that money out of PTA accounts: donations go straight to the campaign and are never deposited by the PTA. The volunteer time spent asking still counts as lobbying.

What a PTA can do freely

Nonpartisan voter work is not lobbying and not campaigning, so it has no limit:

• Voter registration drives open to everyone, without targeting voters by their likely choice.
• Candidate forums that invite every candidate, use broad questions from a neutral panel, and give each candidate equal time with a neutral moderator. A forum can go ahead if one candidate declines, as long as the PTA says that candidate was invited and declined.
• Factual information about what a measure would fund, in a voter guide or at a meeting.

Each of these must stay nonpartisan in practice. A forum or guide that favors one candidate counts as campaign intervention.

Keeping the record and reporting it

Lobbying is reported on the PTA’s annual IRS return.

• 990-EZ: answer line 47 and complete Schedule C, Part II. A PTA with a 501(h) election completes Part II-A even in a year with no lobbying.
• 990: answer Part IV, line 4, and complete Schedule C, Part II.
• 990-N: the e-Postcard asks nothing about lobbying. The limits still apply.

The 990 filing guide covers which return your PTA files. Whatever the form, keep the motion, the budget line, the payment, and any state filing together, so the next treasurer and your financial reviewers can see the whole decision.

Where Volo Cash helps

A ballot measure contribution runs through the same steps as any PTA expense, and Volo Cash keeps them together.

• Budget it. Add an advocacy line, or amend this year’s budget with a budget proposal once the membership votes.
• Approve it the way your bylaws say. The request collects the signatures your process requires, and signers see the line’s remaining balance when they sign.
• Report it. The budget report shows the year’s total on that line, a starting figure for Schedule C.

Volo Cash fits the process you already have. If the membership wants an extra check on advocacy spending, you can give that line its own pre-approver, or require another signer on any request over a dollar amount.

A mid-year amendment: the new line and its note sit in a draft until the membership adopts it.

Whether PTA donations are tax deductible covers the money coming in, the complete PTA treasurer handbook covers the rest of the job, and you can try Volo Cash free for three months.