[GeeTwo]

We have a hybrid situation, which is in response to a similar situation. We formed a 501c3 "Slidell Tiger Robotics Booster Club" which consists of (but is not limited to) mentors and interested parents. Most of our "big ticket" items, such as paying for competition each year, equipment purchases, and some of our re-stocking, go through our account which the school. Most of the purchases during build season, and many of our smaller parts purchases are handled by the booster club. The school (or more precisely the school board) required that the school be the designated beneficiary for the booster club should it disband, and requires an annual report, with an audit by another individual who was not handling the money that year, and of course we need to file a (zero dollar) tax return each year. The school has also required that a larger portion of our total funds go through the school account than we had in our second and third year when we used the school account only when we really had to; it's now somewhere around half.

Like you, we have no direct funding of the team through the school, though the use of a build space, electricity, insurance, excused absences from school, and the coach's stipend are all certainly of value, and I doubt we could keep the team viable without at least some of these. The school account money derives from some of our sponsorships (particularly government sponsors), student fees, and fundraisers which take place on school property or on school time. The booster club money derives from our local sponsors, private donors, and "off campus" fund raisers such as a piggybackr.com campaign we are currently running. The team perks and lists sponsors on our website, shirts, robots, and such equivalently for money which goes through either account; both support the team!