Schools and Community Event Cost Recovery

Using data to illuminate the impact of event space usage

When it comes to education—whether public, private, K–12, or higher ed—there are two common threads beyond the students, staff, and communities that utilize these facilities: hidden costs and data.

On campus, your assets consist of everything from desks or chairs to the grounds and buildings. They also include gymnasiums, athletic fields, auditoriums, and other communal spaces, and they’re all oozing data.

For those tasked with managing budgets, avoiding extra expenses might seem like a no-brainer, but here’s the
interesting thing: you’re likely not catching where your hidden costs are actually coming from. No, it’s not the arts or the theater programs; it’s usually right there, hidden in plain sight—and you think it’s already paid for. Any ideas?

It’s events, and they probably cost your school a lot more money than you realize.

At Brightly, we’re so convinced that there is an excellent opportunity to use your events-based data to make more informed decisions for your educational institution and assets that we surveyed 240 schools at various levels to dive deeper into the real expenses of events—and whether or not their costs are included in budgets or recovered.

Our data revealed many things, including that schools are hosting a lot of events.

In this whitepaper, we’re using a data-driven approach to take a closer look into:

→ Your school, its community, and the complications with budgets

→ Why school-hosted events result in overlooked expenses

→ Other factors that contribute to the complexity of events

→ How to use data to unlock the full potential of events