Manheim Township isn't the first local school district to turn to naming rights and corporate sponsorships as another funding source for educational programs.

Market Street Sports Group, Landisville, has been helping districts line up corporate benefactors for the past three years, and had submitted a proposal to Manheim Township before that district elected to set up Eventis Group.

Jason Jesberger, Market Street's president of marketing and one of its co-founders, at one time worked for the Manheim Township Education Foundation as site director for its Envisions division, running before- and after-school programs, summer camps and enrichment programs.

Like Kristy Lovelace, of Eventis Group, Jesberger and Market Street's other co-founder, Jeff Bertoni, earned some of their marketing chops working for the Barnstormers before starting their business.

Market Street began by soliciting corporate sponsorships for Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association events.

"No one else was doing it that we knew of," Jesberger said, but local school districts, starting with Hempfield, quickly became interested once the company began working the PIAA championships.

"Hempfield contacted us," Jesberger recalled.

Three years later, Market Street has grown to five employees handling the corporate sponsorship marketing for all PIAA events, the Big 33, the B2B Baseball & Softball Academy, Manheim, and 11 school districts, including Hempfield, Columbia, Octorara and Conestoga Valley in Lancaster County.

The company's revenue last year was about $800,000, Jesberger said, and is expected to grow to about $1.4 million in the coming year.

He said that 70 percent of all the money goes back to the schools to support their programs with Market Street retaining 30 percent to do the fulfillment.

"Some [school districts] are pulling in well over $150,000 a year in sponsorships," Jesberger said, while other smaller districts may be making only $20,000.

Unlike Eventis, Market Street doesn't rent out facilities or assist community groups in organizing their events.

It does however, offer some TV and Web site tie-ins and works with some national sponsors, such as Nike and Nationwide Insurance, that are interested in programs in multiple districts.

Market Street has also begun arranging for credit unions to establish branches within the schools, including a branch of the Wheatland Federal Credit Union at Hempfield High School.

The banks work with the schools to teach the students financial literacy, Jesberger said.

"We have a lot of tools we can pull out when we're speaking with a company," he said.