Gifted & talented booster club ticketing and raffle tools

Last updated 2026-07-25

what does a treasurer do for a gifted and talented booster club

A booster club treasurer tracks every dollar coming in and going out, files the annual IRS return, and makes sure fundraising activities like raffles stay inside state law. For a gifted and talented (GT) academy booster club, that usually means managing ticket sales for academic competitions, science fair galas, or awards banquets, plus running the occasional raffle to fund travel to regional or state GT competitions. The job is smaller than it sounds until tax season or an audit hits. Most GT booster clubs run on a shoestring, maybe $5,000 to $40,000 a year, funding things like MATHCOUNTS travel, robotics kits, or Odyssey of the Mind registration fees. The treasurer is the person who has to explain, in plain terms, where that money went if a parent or the school district asks. Day to day, the treasurer does bank reconciliations, keeps receipts, writes checks or approves reimbursements, and prepares whatever financial report the board wants at meetings. Once a year, the treasurer also has to figure out the tax filing obligation, which for most small booster clubs means the Form 990-N e-postcard. If your booster club sells raffle tickets alongside event tickets, the treasurer also owns the raffle compliance piece: getting the state permit if one is required, tracking prize values, and reporting raffle income and expenses separately from regular fundraising on the tax return.

what is a treasurer and what do treasurers do in a club setting

A treasurer is the officer legally and functionally responsible for a club's money. In a nonprofit booster club, that role usually sits on the board alongside the president, secretary, and sometimes a fundraising chair, and it's often the only officer who touches every transaction. What treasurers do varies by bylaws, but the core list is consistent across GT academies, sports boosters, and PTOs alike: maintain the checking account, record income and expenses, reconcile bank statements monthly, prepare a budget, present financial reports to the board, and handle the annual tax filing. Many bylaws also require the treasurer to keep receipts and invoices for a set number of years (commonly 3 to 7, though state and IRS record-keeping expectations vary) and to hand over a clean set of books at the end of their term. For a club treasurer specifically, one detail trips people up: 'treasurer' is a volunteer role, not an accounting credential. You don't need a CPA license to do this job well, but you do need consistent habits: separate the club's bank account from anyone's personal account, require two signatures on checks above a threshold your board sets, and never let one person both collect cash and record it without a second set of eyes. In GT booster clubs specifically, the treasurer often also manages sponsorship or grant money from local STEM companies, which usually comes with its own reporting requirements the treasurer has to track separately from raffle or ticket revenue.

what is form 990 and does a small booster club have to file it

$50,000 or less	Form 990-N (e-postcard)
Less than $200,000 and total assets less than $500,000	Form 990-EZ (or full 990)
$200,000 or more, or assets $500,000 or more	Form 990	Source: IRS, 'Annual Filing and Forms' [1] The IRS states plainly: 'Most tax-exempt organizations, other than churches, must file an annual return' and that failing to file for three consecutive years results in automatic revocation of tax-exempt status [2]. That's the scenario a lot of booster club treasurers walk into cold: the previous treasurer quietly stopped filing, and now the EIN shows up on the IRS's revocation list. Most gifted and talented booster clubs, especially newer ones tied to a single school or district program, fall well under $50,000 in gross receipts and just need the 990-N. It takes maybe 10 minutes online once you have your EIN and the login set up. But you still have to actually do it every single year, even in years with almost no activity, or the three-strikes revocation clock keeps running. If your organization is over the 990-N threshold because of a good raffle year or a big ticketed gala, you'll need the 990-EZ or full 990, which asks for a lot more detail on revenue sources, including gaming and raffle income reported separately.

Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations, and the version your booster club files depends on gross receipts. Organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less generally file the Form 990-N e-postcard instead of a full Form 990 ^[1]. Here's the breakdown by size, per IRS guidance: | Gross receipts (annual) | Which form to file |

what is the irs form 990 and where does raffle and ticket income go on it

The IRS form 990 (in its 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N flavors) is where your booster club reports its financial activity to keep its tax-exempt status current. Raffle income and ticketed event income don't just get lumped into one 'fundraising' line; the IRS treats raffles as a form of gaming, which has its own reporting nuances. On the full Form 990 and 990-EZ, gaming activities, including raffles, are reported and organizations may need to attach Schedule G if gross income from gaming or fundraising events exceeds certain thresholds ^[3]. Schedule G instructions specify that an organization must complete Part III if it reported more than $15,000 of gross income from gaming on Form 990-EZ, line 6a, or on Form 990, Part VIII, line 9a ^[3]. That $15,000 gaming threshold matters more than most booster treasurers realize. A single successful spring raffle, say a $10,000 prize package raffle that grosses $18,000 in ticket sales, can push a small GT booster club into needing Schedule G even if the club's overall budget is modest. Track raffle revenue separately from ticket sales for events (like a banquet or awards night) from day one, because they get reported differently and you'll need the breakdown at tax time regardless of which 990 variant applies. For 990-N filers, this level of detail doesn't apply since the e-postcard doesn't break out revenue lines. But if a good raffle year bumps you over $50,000 gross receipts, you're suddenly filling out Schedule G for the first time with no experience doing it. Plan for that possibility before you run a big raffle, not after.

what raffle and ticketing platforms actually work for a GT booster club

Eventbrite	Ticketed events (banquets, galas)	~3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket (varies by plan)	None built-in; not designed for raffles
GiveButter	Donations + event tickets, nonprofit-friendly	Free platform, optional tip-based fees; card processing ~2.9% + $0.30	Some raffle/auction add-ons; check current feature set
Snap! Raffle / RaffleTix-style tools	Dedicated online raffle ticket sales	Percentage of sales, varies by vendor	Built for raffles, prize disclosure fields, entry tracking
Square / PayPal invoicing	Very small, informal ticket sales	Standard card processing (~2.6-2.9% + $0.10-$0.30)	None; manual tracking required	Fee figures above are typical ranges reported by the platforms themselves and change over time; confirm current pricing directly on each platform before committing. Here's the honest take: for a first-year GT booster club running one banquet and maybe one small raffle, you probably don't need a dedicated raffle platform at all. A simple Eventbrite or GiveButter event page for ticket sales, combined with paper raffle tickets sold in person (which is what most state raffle statutes were written around anyway), is often easier to reconcile and easier to explain to a school administrator or district finance office than a third online platform. Where a dedicated raffle platform earns its fee is when you're running a 50/50 raffle or a big-prize raffle where you genuinely need to sell to people who can't attend in person, and your state allows online raffle ticket sales in the first place. Some states restrict raffle ticket sales to in-person transactions or impose specific rules on electronic sales; this varies a lot state to state, so confirm with your state charity office or state gaming/lottery regulator before choosing an online raffle platform.

Most GT academy booster clubs need two things from a platform: simple event ticket sales (banquets, awards nights, STEM fair galas) and, separately, raffle ticket sales where state law allows it. Very few platforms do both well, and none of them handle your state raffle licensing for you. Here's how the common options stack up for a small booster club budget: | Platform | Best for | Typical fee structure | Raffle-specific features |

does our booster club need a raffle license before using any of these platforms

Almost certainly yes, if you're doing a real raffle with cash or prize value, and the license requirement exists independent of whatever ticketing platform you choose. States regulate raffles as a form of charitable gaming, and licensing requirements, fees, and prize caps vary widely. Some states require a specific raffle or charitable gaming license from the state attorney general's office, secretary of state, or a dedicated gaming commission, often with a modest filing fee (commonly in the range of $25 to a few hundred dollars depending on the state and prize value, though this varies significantly). Other states allow certain nonprofits to run small raffles under a general charitable solicitation registration with no separate raffle permit. A handful of states have detailed rules about how proceeds must be used and how prize winners are disclosed. This is genuinely one of the most state-specific corners of nonprofit compliance, and there is no shortcut around checking your specific state's rules. Confirm with your state charity office or attorney general's charitable organizations division before selling a single raffle ticket, whether on paper or through an online platform. Search '[your state] raffle license nonprofit' plus '.gov' to find the right regulator, since it's sometimes the attorney general, sometimes a state gaming board, and sometimes the secretary of state. As one example of how specific these rules get, California's Attorney General requires nonprofits to register annually before conducting raffles and to file a report on each raffle's proceeds afterward, under the state's nonprofit raffle law ^[4]. The platform you choose to sell raffle tickets does not substitute for the license. Snap! Raffle, GiveButter, or any other tool will happily process transactions for a raffle your state hasn't authorized; the platform isn't checking your legal status, you are.

what does a club treasurer actually need to track when running a raffle through an online platform

When a raffle goes through an online ticketing platform, the treasurer's job doesn't shrink, it changes shape. You're no longer counting cash envelopes, but you now need to reconcile platform payout reports against your bank deposits, and you need documentation the IRS and your state regulator might both ask for. At minimum, keep records of: total tickets sold and gross revenue, platform fees deducted (get the exact fee schedule, don't estimate), net deposit amount and date, prize description and fair market value, winner name and how the winner was notified, and any state-required post-raffle report (some states require a report of raffle proceeds and prize payouts within a set number of days after the drawing). Because platforms often deduct fees before payout, your bank deposit will be smaller than your gross ticket sales. That gap has to reconcile cleanly on your books, both for your own board's sanity and because gross revenue (not net) is generally what gets reported on your 990 or 990-EZ ^[3]. Mixing up gross and net here is one of the most common errors new booster treasurers make, and it can make your Schedule G numbers wrong even if your bank balance is fine. If the raffle prize itself has significant value (a big-ticket item like electronics or a travel package), some states also require withholding or reporting to the winner for tax purposes above certain prize thresholds. The IRS's own guidance on gambling winnings and withholding, in Publication 505, covers when backup withholding applies to prize winnings ^[5]. This is genuinely IRS territory and state-specific gambling-winnings territory at the same time, so this is a case worth checking with a tax professional and your state regulator before the raffle, not after someone wins a $2,000 prize.

what happens if our booster club's tax-exempt status was already auto-revoked

If your GT booster club shows up on the IRS Auto-Revocation List, it means the organization failed to file the required 990 (in any version) for three consecutive years, and the IRS automatically revoked its tax-exempt status as required by law ^[2]. This is more common than people assume, especially in booster clubs that go through several treasurer handoffs with no formal transition process. The fix is a real process, not a quick form. Organizations generally need to file Form 1023 or 1023-EZ to apply for reinstatement, and depending on timing and circumstances, some organizations may qualify for retroactive reinstatement back to the revocation date under Rev. Proc. 2014-11, while others get reinstatement only from the postmark date of the new application ^[6]. There are also user fees for the reinstatement application, and IRS fee amounts change, so confirm the current fee on the IRS's exempt organizations user fee page before filing. While revoked, your booster club is not tax-exempt, which means donations made during that window generally aren't tax-deductible for donors, and depending on your state, your state-level exemption (sales tax, for instance) can also be affected. This is exactly the kind of mess a new treasurer inherits without warning, discovered only when a parent asks for a donation receipt and the EIN doesn't check out on the IRS's exempt organization search tool. If you're in this spot: don't panic, but don't slow-walk it either. Pull your EIN, check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool, and if you're revoked, start the reinstatement paperwork while continuing normal fundraising activity under board guidance; this is a situation where getting advice from an accountant or attorney familiar with nonprofit reinstatement is genuinely worth the cost.

how do we compare ticketing platform fees fairly before choosing one

Comparing ticketing platforms fairly means looking at total cost per attendee at your actual expected ticket price, not the headline percentage rate, because flat per-ticket fees hit small booster events harder than percentage-only fees do. Run the math on your real numbers. A $25 banquet ticket through a platform charging 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket costs roughly $2.72 in fees, about 11% of the ticket price. The same fee structure on a $75 ticket costs about $4.57, only about 6% of the price. Flat per-ticket fees are proportionally worse for cheaper tickets, which matters a lot for GT booster events that often price banquet or fundraiser tickets in the $15 to $40 range to stay accessible to families. Also check who eats the fee. Some platforms let you pass the fee to the buyer as an add-on (so your club nets closer to full ticket price) while others deduct it from your payout by default. Both are common; check the specific platform's settings before your event goes live, because switching mid-sale confuses buyers and complicates your reconciliation. Finally, factor in the labor cost of reconciliation. A platform that gives you a clean, exportable transaction report with fees itemized per ticket saves the treasurer real hours at tax time compared to a platform that just deposits a lump sum with no itemized detail. For a volunteer treasurer doing this after a full workday, that convenience is worth paying a slightly higher percentage fee for.

what internal controls should a booster club treasurer set up around ticketing and raffle money

Good internal controls for a GT booster club aren't about distrust, they're about protecting whoever is holding the money, including the treasurer, from ever being the only person who could have made a mistake or taken something. This matters especially with raffle cash, which is the highest-risk money type most booster clubs handle. A few controls that cost nothing and take an hour to set up: require two people to count cash raffle proceeds together and both sign the count sheet before deposit, never let the same person sell tickets and reconcile the cash box alone, deposit raffle and ticket proceeds within a few days rather than holding cash at someone's house, and require board approval (more than treasurer approval) for any purchase or reimbursement over a threshold the board sets, commonly somewhere in the $100 to $500 range depending on your club's budget size. For online ticket and raffle sales, controls look different but matter just as much: limit who has admin access to the platform account, require two board members to approve any refund, and make sure the person reconciling the bank account isn't the same person with sole login access to the ticketing platform's payout settings. Building this from scratch takes real time, which is why a lot of new treasurers end up assembling a binder of state-specific forms, sample control policies, and filing checklists on their own, often duplicating work other booster treasurers have already done. If that sounds like where you are, BoosterLedger's $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit puts your state's specific raffle and filing requirements, plus standard control templates, in one place instead of forty open browser tabs.

what should a new treasurer do in the first 30 days after taking over a GT booster club

The first 30 days should be an audit of what you inherited, not a rush to launch the next fundraiser. Before you touch a ticketing platform or plan a raffle, confirm four things: the club's EIN and current IRS exempt status via the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, the last 990 filed and when, current bank account balance versus what the books show, and whether the club currently holds any state raffle or charitable solicitation registration. If any of those four things comes back with a surprise (missing filings, an unreconciled bank account, no state registration despite years of raffles), fix that before adding a new platform or a new fundraiser to the calendar. Adding complexity on top of broken basics just buries the problem deeper. Once the basics check out, then it's reasonable to evaluate ticketing and raffle platforms for your upcoming events, informed by your state's specific rules and your club's actual transaction volume rather than by whatever platform another booster club down the road happens to use. What works for a football booster club moving thousands of raffle tickets a year is often overkill for a GT academy club running one banquet and one modest raffle.

Frequently asked questions

what does a treasurer do in a booster club

A booster club treasurer manages the bank account, records income and expenses, reconciles statements, prepares financial reports for the board, and handles the annual IRS filing (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990). In clubs that run raffles, the treasurer also tracks raffle-specific revenue and ensures state raffle license requirements are met.

what is a treasurer

A treasurer is the officer responsible for an organization's money: tracking it, reporting on it, and making sure required filings and compliance steps happen. In a volunteer booster club, it's an elected or appointed board position, not a paid accounting job, though the responsibilities are real and carry legal weight.

what is form 990 and which version does our booster club file

Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations. Which version you file depends on gross receipts: $50,000 or less generally means Form 990-N, under $200,000 with assets under $500,000 generally means Form 990-EZ, and above those thresholds means the full Form 990 ^[1].

what is a 990 tax form used for

It's how a tax-exempt organization reports its financial activity, governance, and program details to the IRS annually to keep its exempt status. It's not an income tax return in the traditional sense since exempt organizations generally don't owe income tax, but failing to file it for three years causes automatic revocation of exempt status ^[2].

what is the 990-N e-postcard and how long does it take

The 990-N is a short online filing for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It asks for basic identifying information rather than detailed financials and typically takes about 10 minutes to complete once you have your EIN and IRS e-Postcard login set up ^[1].

do we need a raffle license to sell raffle tickets through an online platform

In most states, yes. Using an online ticketing or raffle platform doesn't remove the underlying state licensing requirement; it just changes how tickets are sold. Confirm the specific rule with your state charity office or attorney general's charitable organizations division before running any raffle, online or in person.

what happens if our booster club didn't file a 990 for three years

The IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status after three consecutive years of not filing any required version of the 990 ^[2]. Reinstatement generally requires filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ, paying the applicable user fee, and in some cases the organization can seek retroactive reinstatement under Rev. Proc. 2014-11 ^[4].

how much do ticketing platforms like Eventbrite charge for a booster club event

Eventbrite's typical fee structure runs around 3.7% plus $1.79 per paid ticket, though exact rates depend on the plan and change over time; always confirm current pricing on the platform before your event. That fee is proportionally higher on cheaper tickets, so a $15 ticket loses a bigger percentage to fees than a $75 ticket.

is a 50/50 raffle treated differently than a regular raffle for tax purposes

For state licensing, a 50/50 raffle is generally still a raffle and subject to the same charitable gaming rules; check with your state charity office since some states have specific 50/50-raffle provisions. For IRS reporting, gaming income (including 50/50 raffles) over $15,000 gross may require Schedule G on the 990 or 990-EZ ^[3].

what records does a treasurer need to keep after a raffle

Keep total tickets sold, gross revenue, itemized platform or processing fees, net deposit amount and date, prize description and fair market value, winner identification, and any state-required post-raffle report. Gross (not net) revenue is generally what belongs on your 990 or 990-EZ gaming line ^[3].

can a gifted and talented booster club accept sponsorship money alongside raffle income

Yes, and most GT booster clubs do, often from local STEM or tech companies. Sponsorship income should be tracked separately from raffle and ticket sales on your books since it's typically reported on a different line of the 990 or 990-EZ and may carry its own acknowledgment requirements for the sponsor.

what's the difference between what a treasurer does and what a bookkeeper does in a booster club

A bookkeeper (if the club has one, paid or volunteer) typically just records transactions. A treasurer has broader board-level responsibility: overseeing controls, presenting financials to the board, ensuring compliance filings happen, and being accountable for the club's financial integrity, even if someone else does the day-to-day data entry.

Sources

1. IRS, Annual Filing and Forms: Filing thresholds for Form 990-N, 990-EZ, and full Form 990 based on gross receipts and assets
2. IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Three consecutive years of not filing required 990 forms results in automatic revocation of tax-exempt status
3. IRS, Instructions for Schedule G (Form 990 or 990-EZ): Schedule G Part III required if gross income from gaming exceeds $15,000 on Form 990-EZ line 6a or Form 990 Part VIII line 9a
4. IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: Procedures for retroactive reinstatement of tax-exempt status after automatic revocation
5. California Department of Justice, Nonprofit Raffle Program (Penal Code section 320.5): California requires nonprofits to register annually before conducting raffles and file a report on each raffle's proceeds
6. IRS, Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax: IRS guidance on backup withholding applicable to gambling and prize winnings