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With tight budgets, high program expectations, and pressure to improve facilities, athletic directors are faced with the challenge of how to do more with less. One-time fundraisers and ad-hoc budget requests can help temporarily, but they are rarely sustainable.
Increasingly, athletic directors are exploring strategies that go beyond seasonal drives, focusing on long-term revenue streams for public schools. These approaches provide predictable support for athletic programs without adding more work to already full plates.
Let’s explore how you can utilize these long-term revenue approaches for your school programs.
The Challenges of Traditional Fundraising
Your traditional fundraisers at public schools may include things like concession stands, car washes, and booster drives. While all of these are great at generating quick revenue, the time and effort required for these outweighs the short-term benefits.
And that’s the real challenge. These are short-term solutions.
Each fundraiser resets revenue to zero once the event ends. All the effort invested in organizing, staffing, and running these events results in only temporary financial gains. Seasonal spikes are unpredictable, making it difficult for athletic departments to plan for larger initiatives like upgraded facilities, new athletic equipment, or scholarship programs.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), booster clubs contribute as much as 30%–50% of an athletic department’s budget (Booster Spark).
While these contributions are vital, relying on seasonal events creates stress and uncertainty for athletic directors.
What “Long-Term Revenue” Really Means for Athletic Departments
So, what does a long-term revenue model look like? At its core, it’s predictable, sustainable, and tied to existing school assets. This means generating revenue streams from your facilities, games, audiences, and community engagement without a high investment (both financial and timewise).
Most importantly, for athletic directors, long-term revenue provides peace of mind. It shifts funding from reactive to proactive, allowing programs to plan ahead, invest strategically, and improve the overall experience for students and the community.
What Successful Athletic Departments Do Differently
Public schools that have successfully built long-term revenue streams share a few key practices:
Leverage existing assets
Instead of relying on seasonal events, successful departments leverage assets that are already in use year-round: gyms, stadiums, scoreboards, and game-day attendance.
Build relationships with local businesses
Local businesses are often eager to support programs that reach students and families. Strategic partnerships create mutual benefit: businesses gain exposure, and schools secure consistent funding without dipping into limited budgets.
Minimize workload for staff
One-time events often burn out volunteers and staff. Long-term sponsorship agreements and advertising programs generate predictable income without requiring constant coordination, letting athletic departments focus on running programs instead of managing fundraisers.
Focus on sustainability, not short-term wins
Successful athletic directors think in terms of years, not weeks. They evaluate how each partnership or revenue stream will perform over time, ensuring their programs can thrive season after season.
How Sponsorship-Based Models Provide a Solution for Athletic Departments
Sponsorship-based revenue models are a great example of this, where local and national businesses commit to supporting school programs over multiple seasons.
Scoreboard Media makes this process simple for athletic directors. Using your school’s scoreboards - or providing new LED video scoreboards at no cost where eligible - we take the sponsorship burden entirely off your plate and turn your athletics facilities into revenue-driving engines. Our team manages every step of the program, allowing your staff to focus on coaching, games, and student-athletes instead of chasing sponsors.
We handle:
- Scoreboard installation and software implementation – from purchasing and installing the LED video scoreboard to setting up ScoreVision and training your staff.
- Sponsor sales and prospecting — finding local and national businesses that are a good fit for your school and program.
- Meetings, contracts, invoicing, and revenue collection — ensuring every partnership is fully managed from start to finish.
- Full-service graphic design and program execution — creating professional, eye-catching sponsorship content for your scoreboards.
- Ongoing customer service, retention, and renewals — maintaining strong relationships so sponsors continue year after year.
- Proof-of-performance reporting, photography, and video — giving sponsors measurable results and your school a record of engagement.
In short, we become your sponsorship department, driving revenue, strengthening community connections, and providing a professional experience for your sponsors that encourages long-term support.
More Revenue Without More Work
Here’s how you can get started with Scoreboard Media:
- Schools can apply for a free scoreboard, or if they already have a scoreboard, we can implement a sponsorship program on existing boards to generate revenue.
- Our team works directly with the school to determine the optimal program and we handle installation, implementation of ScoreVision, our software partner, and staff training, so the athletic department doesn’t need to manage technical details.
- Once the boards are ready, our sponsorship coordinators recruit local and national businesses to sponsor the program. Any referrals provided by the school contribute additional revenue, creating an extra layer of funding for athletic programs.
