Free tools and field guides
The smaller jobs, the ones a good tool or a plain-English answer can settle in an evening. Everything on this page is free and needs no account.
Tools
Interactive, not printable. Each one does the thinking, produces the document, and remembers it for next year's board.
Staff Favorites Collector
Create a collection for your school, share one link with staff, and get every teacher's and para's favorites compiled automatically — dashboard for the board, printable cards for room parents, optional public page for families.
The Year Wheel
What your board should be doing right now — every month of the PTO year by role, with the compliance deadlines that bite and the lead times that save you. Pair it with the monthly reminder email and nothing lands on you the week before.
Budget Builder
Four questions, and you get a complete starting budget seeded from how real parent groups split their money — rules of thumb checked live, board-ready proposal, and a spreadsheet export with working formulas.
Handoff Binder
Six guided sections — paperwork, access, contacts, calendar, money, advice — filled by your whole board through the year via one share link, handed to successors as a link and a printout. Sections fully customizable.
Bylaws Builder
For independent PTOs, PTSOs, and boosters (PTA units use state bylaws): a dozen plain-English questions become a complete draft — 501(c)(3) language, elections, quorum, financial controls — plus a board-review checklist and Word export.
Lost & Found Kit
The school's lost and found, run like someone owns it: a policy you can publish, bin labels by category, a poster with a QR code, the "claim it before we donate it" emails, a sort-day checklist, and a log that counts what went home.
Sponsorship Kit
Turn what you can offer into a priced tier sheet, ready ask + thank-you letters (with the right tax language), and a tracker that makes sure promised perks — the banner, the booth — actually get delivered.
Fundraiser Picker
Your school size, crew, and goal in — fundraisers ranked by what you'd net and profit per volunteer-hour, plus the vendor-neutral DIY-vs-vendor math on why a full-service fun run keeps about half.
Platform Chooser
Zeffy, Cheddar Up, Givebacks, Square — six questions and you get the right fit for your group, with real fees, the honest catch on each, and a setup checklist. We take no cut from any of them.
Welcome One-Pager
The "what is a PTO?" handout for your welcome table — your school name and colors, what you do, how to help, and a QR code to your signup. Printable in two minutes.
Just took the role and not sure where to begin?
The Starter Kits thread these tools into an ordered first-30-days path — president, treasurer, secretary, events, membership, or a brand-new group.
Field guides
Written like a veteran officer explaining it over coffee. Wherever a guide has a tool that does the work, they link both ways.
The PTO year
The operating calendar
The PTO year: what your board should do every month
July through June — the whole year's shape, the three deadlines that bite, and a checklist page for every month.
Read the guideThe interactive version
The Year Wheel
Pick your month and your role — president, treasurer, secretary, or events — and see exactly your list. Free, no login.
Open the toolNew officers
Start here
New PTO treasurer: your first 30 days
What the job actually is, the review to insist on before accepting the books, and the four-week sequence that makes it small.
Read the guideComing soon
President and secretary first-30-days
The same treatment for the other chairs — shipping alongside the New Officer Starter Kits.
Money & compliance
Money back to teachers
How teacher mini-grant programs actually work
How much to give, whether the cap follows the person or the classroom, receipts, batching checks, and what to do when the money runs out in February.
Read the guideThe real numbers
How PTOs actually split their budgets
The 40/30/20/10 shape, the teacher-appreciation percentage argument settled, reserve rules, and the startup fund every budget misses.
Read the guideThe most common inherited mistake
Why your PTO can't run on personal Venmo
The five risks veterans warn about, what a proper setup looks like, and the afternoon-long migration checklist.
Read the guideThe annual ritual
Changing bank signers after elections
What banks actually require, the copy-paste board resolution, and how to do it in one branch visit instead of three.
Read the guideThe recovery
Lost your PTO's EIN? Get it back this week
Where the number hides, the one IRS call that replaces the letter (with a script), and the exempt-status check to run while you're at it.
Read the guideFundraising & sponsorship
The real math
Fun run DIY vs. the vendors
What Boosterthon-style companies really keep, what DIY nets, and how to choose — with a free picker that ranks fundraisers for your school.
Read the guideB2B, done right
Pricing school sponsorships (and the tax line)
What to charge, what to offer, and the acknowledgment-vs-advertising rule no template gets right — plus a free kit builder.
Read the guideGovernance & transition
The rulebook
PTO bylaws: every clause explained
What each article does, the five mistakes we see constantly, and how to adopt them properly — with a free builder and full sample.
Read the guideThe June problem
Why boards collapse every June (and the binder that prevents it)
The April-to-July transition calendar and the handoff binder that carries the knowledge across the gap.
Read the guideTech setup
The recurring debate, settled
The best payment platform for your PTO
Zeffy vs. Cheddar Up vs. Givebacks vs. Square — real fees, the three kinds of "free," the safety rules, and a chooser that picks one for you.
Read the guideContinuity infrastructure
Google Workspace for your PTO: the version that gets verified
Free nonprofit email and Drive, the Goodstack verification maze, the umbrella-EIN gotcha, and the appeal email that unsticks it.
Read the guideBe first when the next tool ships
One useful email a month — what your board should be doing right now. Unsubscribe anytime.