grassroots financial structure

[wistfulthinker]

I thought this would be an easy question to research, but I've been through stickies here and googled a bunch and can't seem to figure this out. Our grassroots group intends to fund raise and we're unsure about how to provide both accountability to donors and ensure that one member doesn't get stuck with thousands of dollars going through a personal checking account.

Our group is in a fairly wealthy area and we've had several folks interested in donating large amounts. But they'd like some accountability, i.e. not just me saying, "I won't spend your money on new shoes." At the same time, we don't want thousands of dollars funneling through an individual's private checking account to raise red flags. We had a member trying to set up a PAC, but our state department which sets those us is under investigation and backlogged. We've got expenditures to make and several biggish donors ready but we can't get a handle on the best way to handle the money.

Looking for advice.

[Indy Vidual]

bump

[wistfulthinker]

In case anyone else is trying to open a grassroots bank account, here's what I found out.
First go to irs.gov and look for linksk to EIN number (Employee Identification Number: I know it's not intuitive). You have to root around some but you can find a category for political organization (under "other" maybe). Then look for the "banking purposes." You fill it out online and print it.

You can then take this to a bank and open an account. Our bank asked us for minutes from the meeting at which we elected a secretary, president, and agreed to open an account. We needed both a secretary and a president to sign to open the account. Since we don't have employees or take donations that are deductible, we don't think we'll have to file tax forms, but we'll need to research this further.

An account like this gives donors some measure of accountability as well as ensures that money isn't running through an individual's account. Hope it helps someone else.