[waialua359]

Originally Posted by coalhot

As I understand it, the team is a separate entity from the school. This is complicated by working in the school rather that at a company/business.
--Philip

Our team is not a separate entity from the school, however, it depends on how you have things setup in terms of donations, bank account, 501c3, etc.
Those things are separate from the school to a certain extent, as we have multiple avenues in how we receive funding.
If you are a public school, donations made to the school on behalf of your team should be tax-deductible. I really dont see how letters cant be sent out asking for donations unless its a "policy" rather than law.
If anything, it is less complicated working in the school.
Setting up a 501c3 non-profit organization requires a lot of work, and I spend quite a bit of time doing paperwork for our team and meeting compliance issues. If it were just a school club account like how we did things before, it would be much much easier than complicated. However, it limited how and what we could receive.
Hope you folks can iron things out and get the support you need.