When Dave Kerpen was elected to the Port Washington Board of Education, he said he would be willing to go beyond the norm to find additional sources of revenue for the school district.
“I wanted to look for a creative solution to the costs and funding challenges,” he said.
One such idea that Kerpen is pushing would be to accept funding from corporate sponsors.
“Every year we are tasked with increasing costs that raise taxes on our residents,” he said. “It is my job as a school board member to minimize that and one way we can do that is to bring in funds from corporate sponsors.”
Recently the board put out an announcement looking for community members who have experience with sales and marketing. Kerpen said the idea is “still in the exploration phrase.”
This may not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed Kerpen’s career. He used a method similar to the one proposed for Port Washington schools to pay for his wedding, which was sponsored by Entenmann’s, Broadway Mall and the Brooklyn Cyclones, among others. Before that, he became famous in Boston as a vendor around Gilette Stadium and Fenway Park, appeared on the reality television show “Paradise Hotel” and co-founded the social media marketing firm Likable Media.
So when asked if he had a goal for fundraising, Kerpen had an audacious target.
“I like to aim high, so I would like to rasise $6 million,” he said. “Obviously the more money we raise, the less we would have to raise taxes.”
He said that sponsors would follow the sports sponsorship model, where a business could sponsor a building or an athletic field.
“It’s not that the computers will be sponsored by Apple,” he said. “But the baseball field could be sponsored by a bank.”
A few citizens have expressed concern over the legality of such an initiative and how much it would benefit Port Washington. Other school districts have had sponsorships that failed to live up to expectations, such as the 2003 partnership between New York City schools and beverage company Snapple that ended up bringing in less revenue than anticipated and was criticized by the comptroller for a flawed bidding process.
But Kerpen stressed that he was taking the job seriously and that sponsorship deals would be carefully selected.
“It’s our job to make sure we vet sponsors,” he said. “As a parent, I am as concerned as anyone.”
Kerpen said that the board would not accept sponsorships from companies selling junk food and soda, and added that it “goes without saying” that there would be no alcohol-related sponsorships. He said banking, finance, automotive sales and television were all categories for which the school could solicit sponsorships.
As for the benefit to the companies making the sponsorships, Kerpen said they would get local exposure.
“They would be reaching thousands of consumers, similar to what you would have if you sponsor a sports team,” he said.
