Almost every school class and kindergarten group ends up with a shared pot of parent money. It gets called a class fund, a group fund, or simply the class budget — and that vagueness is exactly where the conflicts start. Below is what the term actually means, what it may and may not be spent on, and how to run it so that nobody has to reconstruct the numbers from chat history in May.
Class fund vs one-off collection
| Aspect | Class fund | One-off collection |
|---|---|---|
| When money is paid | Upfront, once or twice a year | Right before a specific purchase |
| Purpose | A basket of small recurring costs | One named item or event |
| Typical amount | A larger sum, often paid in instalments | A small sum, easy to say yes to |
| Main risk | Nobody remembers where the money went | Collection fatigue — a new request every week |
What a class fund usually covers
- Stationery and consumables: printer paper, folders, laminating film, chalk and markers, first-aid basics.
- Gifts for the children: birthday presents, New Year sweets, end-of-year souvenirs.
- Celebrations: tea parties, decorations, a photographer, props for school performances.
- Flowers and gifts for teachers: the start of the school year, Teacher Day, the last bell.
- Trips and excursions: tickets, a coach, museum entry.
What it should not cover: repairs, furniture, window blinds, security, or textbooks from the mandatory curriculum. Those are the school budget responsibility, and a request for them is worth questioning rather than quietly funding.
How much is typically collected
The number should never come from habit or from what the previous committee charged. The correct order is the reverse: first the list of planned purchases for the year, then the total, then the division by the number of children. A fund whose amount was derived from a published budget almost never gets challenged in the chat.
How to keep the fund transparent
The recurring complaint in parent chats is never the amount — it is not knowing what happened to the money. A treasurer notebook does not solve this: nobody except the treasurer can see it. A shared expense group does: every purchase is logged with who paid, the category and a photo of the receipt, and every parent can open the same link at any time.
In ДелиБабки you create a group by link with no registration, log each contribution under the Contribution to the pot category, and watch the running totals on the Analytics tab — total spent, number of entries, a breakdown by category and by payer. A group PIN keeps everyone in read-only mode so nothing gets edited by accident. When the semester closes, the Excel export produces a two-sheet workbook — expenses with a per-parent share column, and balances with recommended transfers — which is the report itself, ready to post in the chat.
Frequently asked questions
What is a class fund?
A shared pot of money that parents contribute to in advance for a whole school year or semester, so the parent committee does not have to run a new collection before every small purchase. It is not a legal entity or a bank account — it is a voluntary arrangement between parents.
How is a class fund different from a one-off collection?
The planning horizon. A fund is a recurring upfront contribution spent gradually; a one-off collection targets a specific purchase. Many classes use the terms interchangeably, so define which one you mean in the first announcement.
Are parents obliged to pay into the class fund?
No. Contributions are voluntary by definition, and a child may never be excluded from shared gifts or activities because their family did not pay.
Who should manage the class fund?
One treasurer from the parent committee. Teachers should not collect or hold parent money. Publish a budget, keep a list of contributions, save every receipt, and close the year with a report.
Run the class fund where every parent can see it
Create a shared group by link, log every purchase with a receipt photo, and export the whole year to Excel when it is time to report.
Create an expense group