Berne-Knox booster club raffle: rules new treasurers must know

Last updated 2026-08-14

What does a booster club treasurer actually do?

A booster club treasurer keeps the money honest. That's the whole job in one sentence, but it breaks into a handful of concrete tasks: tracking every dollar in and out, reconciling the bank account monthly, filing whatever the IRS requires each year, and handing over clean records to the next person when your term ends. For a group like a Berne-Knox area booster club raising money through raffles, concessions, and membership dues, the treasurer is usually the only person who knows where the money actually is. That's a lot of responsibility for a volunteer job nobody trained you for. Day to day, expect to write checks or approve reimbursements, deposit cash from raffle ticket sales and concession stands, keep receipts organized by event, and prepare a simple financial report for board meetings. Once a year, expect to file with the IRS. Once every few years, expect to deal with a state raffle license renewal if your club runs games of chance. None of this requires an accounting degree. It requires consistency: the same process every time money moves, written down so the next volunteer can follow it.

What is a treasurer, in plain terms?

A treasurer is the person a nonprofit board designates to manage its money and report on it. Most state nonprofit corporation laws don't spell out every duty in detail, but they generally require an officer responsible for financial records and reporting to the board. For a small booster club, 'treasurer' usually means: you have signing authority (or shared signing authority) on the bank account, you keep the checkbook or ledger, and you're the name on file if the IRS or the state charity office has a question. It's a fiduciary role, meaning you're legally expected to act in the club's interest, not your own, and to keep accurate records. That doesn't mean you need a law degree either. It means don't co-mingle personal and club funds, don't skip the paper trail, and don't assume 'we've always done it this way' is a legal defense if something goes wrong.

What does a treasurer do in a club versus a formal nonprofit?

The core job is the same whether your booster club is a fully recognized 501(c)(3) or an informal parent group that's never filed anything with the IRS: track money, report on it, keep it safe. The difference shows up in paperwork. A club recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) has an annual IRS filing obligation tied to its exempt status. An informal group that's never applied for exemption still owes taxes on its income unless it qualifies for exemption some other way, and it can't offer donors a tax deduction. Many small booster and PTO groups assume they're 'too small to file anything.' That's not correct. Even a club with under $50,000 in annual gross receipts that has 501(c)(3) status must file the 990-N e-postcard every year ^[1]. Skipping it for three consecutive years causes automatic revocation of tax-exempt status ^[2]. If your Berne-Knox booster club has ever applied for and received a federal EIN and exemption letter, this applies to you.

What is Form 990, and does a small booster club need to file it?

Form 990-N (e-postcard)	Smallest orgs	Normally ≤ $50,000 [1]
Form 990-EZ	Mid-size orgs	Normally < $200,000 and total assets < $500,000 [3]
Form 990 (full)	Larger orgs	≥ $200,000 receipts or ≥ $500,000 assets [3]
Form 990-PF	Private foundations	Any size (different category)	Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports groups fall into the 990-N or 990-EZ bucket. A raffle-heavy fundraising year could bump you over the 990-N threshold temporarily, so check your actual gross receipts each year rather than assuming last year's form still applies. Read more on form 990 and the 990 tax form requirements generally.

Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations. It's how the IRS (and the public) sees what a nonprofit took in, spent, and paid its officers, if any. There isn't one single 990 form. There's a family of them scaled to size: | Filing | Who files it | Rough gross receipts threshold |

What is the 990 tax form, exactly, and what happens if we don't file?

The 990-series is an informational return, not an income tax bill in most cases; tax-exempt organizations generally don't owe income tax on mission-related revenue. But the filing itself is mandatory, and the IRS is not gentle about missed years. The rule: 'Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status' ^[2]. That's automatic, no warning letter required, though the IRS does publish a searchable list of revoked organizations. If your booster club's exemption gets auto-revoked, you lose the ability to tell donors their gifts are tax-deductible, and you may have to file federal (and sometimes state) income tax returns going forward until you get reinstated. Reinstatement means filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again, sometimes with retroactive fees, and it isn't quick. See the 990n and form 990-n pages for the exact e-postcard fields the IRS asks for.

Does a booster club raffle in New York need a state license?

Almost certainly yes, if you're selling raffle tickets to the public with a cash or prize payout. New York regulates 'games of chance' including raffles under Article 9-A of the General Municipal Law, administered through the New York State Gaming Commission along with local municipal clerks ^[4]. In practice, this means a booster club running a raffle in the town of Berne or town of Knox (Albany County) typically needs a games of chance license issued by the town or county clerk, not a state agency directly, because New York delegates local licensing authority to municipalities that have opted into the law ^[4]. Not every town has opted in, and licensing details (fees, bonding, reporting) vary by municipality, so confirm with the Berne or Knox town clerk's office and with New York's Gaming Commission before your first raffle. Raffles under a certain net proceeds threshold in a single occasion may qualify for simplified rules in some states, but New York's framework is built around registration and reporting rather than a blanket small-raffle exemption, so don't assume you're exempt just because it's 'just a school raffle.' Confirm with the Gaming Commission and your town clerk.

What records does a raffle require, beyond the license?

License or no license, a raffle creates a paper trail obligation that's separate from (and just as important as) the IRS filing. Track four things at minimum: how many tickets were printed, how many were sold, total cash collected, and the winner and prize value. Reconcile ticket stubs against cash deposited the same day the raffle ends, while memories are fresh and the treasurer isn't the only person who remembers who paid cash versus who still owes. Two-person counting for cash raffles is standard good practice: one person counts, a second person verifies, both initial the tally sheet. If the prize has real value (a big-ticket item, cash prize over a state threshold, etc.), some states require you to report winnings to the state and possibly issue the winner a Form W-2G if it crosses IRS gambling-winnings thresholds. IRS guidance on gambling winnings sets the reporting threshold for raffle-type prizes at winnings of $600 or more where the payout is at least 300 times the wager amount ^[5]. Confirm with the IRS and your state's charity/gaming office what applies to your specific prize values, because thresholds change and vary by prize type. Keep raffle records for at least the period your state requires for license renewal review, typically several years, plus whatever your own board policy says for audit purposes.

What does a club treasurer do specifically during raffle season?

Raffle season is the treasurer's busiest stretch of the year, and it's where sloppy habits cause the most damage. Concretely, the treasurer (or a designated raffle chair reporting to the treasurer) should: Before the raffle: confirm the license is active and covers this specific event, set up a separate cash box and tally sheet, assign two people to handle money at all times. During the raffle: never let one person both sell tickets and hold the cash box alone for an extended period; do a mid-event count if the raffle spans hours or days. After the raffle: count with two people present, deposit the full amount (don't pay expenses out of raffle cash before depositing), reconcile tickets sold against dollars collected, and file whatever local raffle report the license requires (many municipalities require a post-event financial report within a set number of days). This is exactly the kind of recurring, error-prone process a written procedure fixes permanently. A one-time setup (a printed cash-count sheet, a two-signature deposit rule, a raffle reporting checklist) saves the next three treasurers from reinventing this every year, which is the whole idea behind something like the $99 State-Personalized Treasurer Kit: it's a template built once so nobody has to guess at raffle-season cash controls from scratch.

What do treasurers do about cash handling controls year-round?

Raffle cash control is really just a special case of the club's everyday cash-handling policy, so it's worth having a general standard, not a raffle-only one. Minimum practices worth adopting: two signers on the bank account, no single person both approving and disbursing funds, monthly bank reconciliation reviewed by someone other than the treasurer (a board member or auditor), and a written expense reimbursement policy with receipts required over a small dollar threshold your board sets (commonly $25 to $50, though there's no legal minimum, it's a board policy choice). Segregation of duties matters more than any single control. If the treasurer collects cash, deposits it, writes checks, and reconciles the bank statement with zero oversight, that's a structural risk regardless of the individual's honesty. Boards should assign at least one of those steps to someone else, even in an all-volunteer group of five people. An annual internal review, even an informal one where a second board member looks at bank statements and receipts side by side, catches most errors before they become real problems. Full external audits are usually overkill for a club this size, but a basic annual look-over by someone other than the treasurer is cheap insurance.

How does the raffle license connect to our IRS exemption status?

These are two separate systems that don't talk to each other, which trips up new treasurers constantly. Your New York games of chance license comes from your town or county clerk and the state Gaming Commission; it has nothing to do with your federal tax-exempt status. Your IRS 990-series filing obligation exists whether or not you run a raffle, and it exists whether or not your raffle license is current. A lapsed raffle license doesn't cause IRS revocation, and a lapsed 990-N filing doesn't automatically cancel your raffle license. But a booster club juggling both without a checklist tends to let one slide while focused on the other. The practical fix: put both renewal dates on the same calendar. Raffle licenses in New York are typically issued per-event or per-year depending on the municipality ^[4], and the 990-N is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends ^[1]. Track both, because losing either one creates real headaches, and losing the IRS exemption is the harder one to reverse.

What is Form 990 used for by the public and by donors?

Beyond satisfying the IRS, a filed 990 or 990-EZ becomes a public document. Sites like the IRS's own Tax Exempt Organization Search let anyone look up whether your club is currently exempt, when it last filed, and (for 990-EZ and full 990 filers) basic financial summaries ^[6]. This matters more than it seems for a small booster club, because parents, sponsors, and local businesses sometimes check this before donating or before agreeing to sponsor a team. A club listed as 'automatically revoked' on the IRS's own database is a red flag that costs you sponsorships, even if the underlying reason was just three missed e-postcard filings, not any actual financial problem. Keeping current on your 990-N (or 990-EZ) filing is one of the cheapest reputation protections a small booster club has. It costs nothing to file the 990-N itself, no dollar fee to the IRS, just the time to log in and confirm your basic information ^[1].

What should a new treasurer do in the first 30 days?

Start with three questions: is our federal tax-exempt status current, is our state raffle license (if any) current, and where are last year's records. Check the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool first; it takes five minutes and tells you immediately if a predecessor missed filings ^[6]. Next, get physical or digital access to the actual bank statements, more than a summary someone gives you verbally. Reconcile the last three months yourself before you trust any number you were told. Then build (or request) a simple calendar: 990-N or 990-EZ due date, raffle license renewal or event-specific application deadlines, and your board's regular reporting meetings. Write it down somewhere that survives your own tenure, because the next treasurer will inherit whatever mess or clarity you leave behind.

Frequently asked questions

What does a treasurer do in a booster club?

A booster club treasurer tracks all money coming in (dues, raffle proceeds, concessions) and going out, reconciles the bank account, keeps receipts organized, reports to the board regularly, and files the club's annual IRS return. For clubs running raffles, the treasurer also usually oversees cash-handling controls and state raffle licensing compliance.

What is a treasurer, simply put?

A treasurer is the officer a nonprofit or club board puts in charge of its money: managing the bank account, keeping financial records, and reporting to the board. It's a position of trust (a fiduciary role), meaning the treasurer must act in the group's interest and keep honest, accurate books.

What is Form 990?

Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, reporting income, expenses, and activities. There are several versions scaled by size: Form 990-N for the smallest orgs (generally under $50,000 gross receipts), Form 990-EZ for mid-size groups, and the full Form 990 for larger nonprofits ^[1][3].

What is the 990 tax form used for?

It lets the IRS and the public verify a nonprofit's tax-exempt status and see basic financial information. It's not an income tax bill in most cases; it's informational. Failing to file it for three straight years causes automatic revocation of tax-exempt status under IRS rules ^[2].

Does our Berne-Knox area booster club need a raffle license?

Almost certainly, if you're selling raffle tickets for cash or prizes in New York. Raffles fall under New York's games of chance law (General Municipal Law Article 9-A), typically licensed through your town or county clerk with oversight from the state Gaming Commission ^[4]. Confirm specifics with your town clerk before your event.

What does a club treasurer do differently during a raffle?

During raffle season, the treasurer should set up two-person cash counting, keep raffle funds separate from general club funds until deposited, reconcile ticket stubs against cash collected, and file any required post-event report to the licensing municipality, on top of normal monthly bookkeeping duties.

What happens if our booster club never filed a 990?

If your club has 501(c)(3) status and hasn't filed any 990-series return for three consecutive years, the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status with no advance warning letter required ^[2]. You'd need to reapply for exemption, potentially pay reinstatement fees, and in the meantime the club can't offer donors tax-deductible receipts.

How much does it cost to file the 990-N e-postcard?

Nothing. The IRS charges no fee for the 990-N e-postcard; it's a free online filing through the IRS website that takes a few minutes once you have your EIN and basic financial totals ^[1]. There's no dollar cost, just the time to log in and confirm accurate figures.

Is a booster club raffle license the same as our IRS tax exemption?

No. The raffle license comes from your state or local government (in New York, typically your town or county clerk plus the state Gaming Commission) and covers your legal right to run a game of chance ^[4]. Your IRS 990 filing is a completely separate federal requirement tied to nonprofit tax-exempt status.

What records do we need to keep after a booster club raffle?

Keep ticket stub counts, total cash collected, the tally sheet signed by two counters, the winner's name and prize value, and any post-event report filed with your licensing municipality. Retain these for at least several years; exact retention requirements vary, so confirm with your state's charity or gaming office.

Who actually enforces raffle rules in New York State?

Raffles in New York are licensed locally, through the town or county clerk in municipalities that have adopted Article 9-A of the General Municipal Law, with the New York State Gaming Commission providing state-level oversight and forms ^[4]. Enforcement and specific fee schedules can vary by municipality, so check with your town clerk directly.

What's the difference between Form 990-N, 990-EZ, and full Form 990?

Form 990-N (e-postcard) is for organizations with gross receipts normally at or under $50,000. Form 990-EZ generally applies when gross receipts are under $200,000 and total assets are under $500,000. Organizations above those thresholds file the full Form 990 ^[1][3]. Check current IRS thresholds each filing year since they can be updated.

Does a raffle winner in New York owe taxes on the prize?

Possibly, and the club may have reporting duties too. Under IRS rules for Form W-2G, raffle and other gambling-type winnings of $600 or more, where the payout is at least 300 times the ticket price, generally trigger a reporting requirement ^[6]. Check with a tax professional for prize-specific situations.

Sources

1. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations, Form 990-N (e-Postcard): 990-N is required for orgs with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, filed with no fee, due the 15th day of the 5th month after fiscal year end
2. IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status
3. IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: Form 990-EZ threshold is gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000; full Form 990 required above that
4. New York General Municipal Law, Article 9-A (Games of Chance): New York regulates raffles as games of chance under Article 9-A, with municipal licensing authority delegated to towns and counties that opt in
5. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: The public can search an organization's current exemption status and filing history through the IRS's online tool
6. IRS, Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 (Rev. January 2021): Raffle and other gambling winnings of $600 or more, where the payout is at least 300 times the wager, generally trigger Form W-2G reporting