Michigan launches non-profit NIL organization Hail!Impact
There's been some chatter in the Twitterverse that there would be some NIL news later this week. My speculation (considering how new it is and how I haven't heard about it until now) is that this is what the hype has been about:
https://hailimpact.org/
It's basically Michigan's version of other schools 501c3 non-profit collectives (Ohio States "Foundation" and Notre Dame's "FUND") where they take donations and then distribute payments to players in exchange for their participation in charitable events/activities.
Their goal is to raise 5 million dollars so as to pay each player on the team 40k.
March 30th, 2023 at 12:52 AM ^
Whoa NIL-ee!
March 30th, 2023 at 12:58 AM ^
Looking forward to seeing him in the booth this fall!
Wait, didn't you hear?
Hear wut???
March 30th, 2023 at 10:13 AM ^
I’m betting that with AI the way it is, we’re not far away (already there?) from a time where we could write a program to give us Keith Jackson announcing a live game. I envision an overlaying app on the TV during live broadcast that can watch the game and generate a PBP using any announcer you like. Maybe it’s Keith Jackson. Maybe it’s Frank Beckman.
March 30th, 2023 at 10:31 AM ^
Holy shit that would be...man, I don't know. Both amazing, terrifying, surreal, and weird all at the same time.
March 30th, 2023 at 10:56 AM ^
Looking forward to Bob Ufer announcing Michigan games again. And Ernie Harwell doing the Tigers' 2026 season.
March 30th, 2023 at 12:15 PM ^
This required a well earned log-in and +1!!!
Ai Michaels?
Cant wait to Mark Aiberts say I want to bite you gain.
Not sure who that is, but I’d sure like to see Marv Albert say that.
His tweet about being back....
yeah, that was from a fake account.....
This is a big deal. It's a legit way for big donors to get their tax benefit while funneling (most) of that money to the players. And the money the players get is in exchange for real use of their NIL, not fake jobs that I assume most big money "NIL" deals are. Well done.
In terms of taxes, don’t you have to have a bucketload if things in order to need to itemize, these days?
Standard deduction is > $25k or so for a married couple: need to have more deductions to itemize
March 30th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
I suppose it depends on what you call a bucketload. With 25k standard deduction for married/jointly, if you have a $300,000 mortgage and a kid or three, your itemized deductions are probably going to get pretty close to that already. If you have a few thousand that you’d like to donate to that cause, you’d get over the $25k pretty easily. I wouldn’t consider having a $300,000 mortgage and three kids a bucketload. It’s a decent ways above average, but still a ways from bucketload in my opinion.
And you are limited to 10k of SALT so no matter how much property tax, sales tax, etc you can itemize, 10k cap. I used to advise my clients to double up their property tax payments one year, take standard next, and rotate. Not helpful anymore
It being tax deductible is fucking stupid and I hate the way guys like Ross get seen as being good guys while using fake gifts to higher education to engage in tax fraud while states have to cut higher education funding because of lack of revenue but at least happy for the kids
March 30th, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
Yeah, those people donating to charitable causes are the real bad guys in the world.
1) it is not tax fraud
2) state funding for higher education is completely unnecessary for any major university, so cutting that funding is almost entirely inconsequential
Donating to a university NIL fund to reduce your taxable income (i.e. pay $100 to reduce your tax bill by $37) is a weird way to commit fraud.
User name checks out.
March 30th, 2023 at 10:20 AM ^
I've wondered how NIL would impact donations to the athletic department. It seems like it's basically the same pool of donors who are now being asked to donate to the NIL initiatives. It has to have an impact on donations to the university directly.
The whole “giving” someone money has always never sat well with me as they are still earning a scholarship by being on the team. I am not saying that the scholarship is enough, but when we use words like “giving”, it just feels weird.
The players earning money by working for a company in some way always felt like the right way to go with NIL, even though I know that it will be abused too.
Kids make millions by playing video games on Twitch or opening toys on Youtube. Social media influencers get money for being pretty, funny, interesting, or whatever their particular "talents" are. I don't know why anyone would have a problem with people choosing to give their money to athletes -- particularly football players who are risking their lives and well-being for the amusement of others. That's what has never sat well with me.
I think their issue was with the word "give". I don't give my plumber money, I pay him. I don't give the grocery store money, I pay them.
If NIL was truly people gifting/giving money, then it wouldn't be taxable up to $12M from each contributor. We are paying players to be good at football while playing for a team we support.
March 30th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^
The accounting implications for the people making donations is a different aspect to it, but as far as giving vs earning -- those kids earn whatever money they end up with IMO. You can see streamers on Twitch and YouTube get "donations" and "superchats" for no reason other than people enjoying watching them do what they do. Football players put in a lot of work and fill stadiums, and sacrifice their future well-being. The scholarship they receive isn't enough and shouldn't be held against them.
For example, I got to go to school for free bc I got decent grades and my family was poor. In return, I had to go to class -- but partied like crazy, slept in daily, didn't have classes before 11am, and so on. My best friend played on scholarship at Western Michigan. He was forced to live in the dorms his first two years. He had to be up at 5am for lifting. Classes and football all day. Mandatory study tables at night. He took a helmet to the lower back making a catch over the middle. He was constantly sore and played through it the rest of his career. Now we're in our 30's, and he's getting ready for his third back surgery in 5 years. He deserved more than just a scholarship. And if someone enjoyed his play enough to "give" him $100k or something crazy, more power to him. I don't see how it hurts anything at all.
March 30th, 2023 at 11:21 AM ^
When we start to use phrases like "risking their lives", we are implying that there isn't a choice for these players. I'm not saying the choices are easy, fair, or the same for everyone, but lets not start acting like there isn't a choice being made and the consequences about these choices are more known now and understood by everyone that plays football.
I agree, though I think the way this works is the players earn money from the NIL by fundraising for charity if I understand correctly?
That's how I read it too. Players have to earn their stipend, it's not just giving to them. Which, ironically, could play strong for Michigan with recruiting because we don't offer inducements to attend.
But, "we do have a nonprofit program that's not reliant on your commercial appeal. Just your ability to roll up your sleeves and get to work." Boom
Agree. If I'm going to give money to someone, they sure as hell better earn it by surviving a natural disaster or painful disease or getting pummeled on the football field for free.
March 30th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
I did try to say in my original statement that I didn't think that a scholarship covered it all.
I also don't think that people that aren't allowed to be helped when something happens that is outside their control (painful disease, natural disaster, etc.).
But accepting a scholarship to play a game that also gets you into a school for free, and possibly a school you wouldn't have been able to get into without football, and then saying people need to give me money on top of that... it just feels weird to me.
I lived by Fingerle lumber in college. They ‘hired’ players to work there in the summer and they showed up 1 day a week. Don’t think this is a new concept.
These donors are paying the bill the NCAA refuses to let Michigan pay. This is all an absolute farce. Our athletes are on tv with their "NIL" in the only meaningful way their "NIL" is actually truly being used and they are getting not one red cent. Michigan having a $100 million surplus is ridiculous. Someone in our university needs to figure out how to give the kids some of that and tell the NCAA to kick rocks. Itll happen someday and we will all look back and laugh at time when NIL was legal and we didnt pay the kids for their NIL in the one area it actually mattered.
Thank you for joining my TED talk.
Make it 20 mill
March 30th, 2023 at 11:14 AM ^
I hope we get there and beyond! I found this quote from The Athletic article interesting:
“When meeting with recruits in his role with the football staff, Weerappuli found that most weren’t looking for outrageous guarantees or bags of cash. They wanted to know that their NIL earnings would be enough to buy a vehicle, rent an off-campus apartment and pay for their parents to attend their games. If established players were ahead of them on the depth chart, they wanted to know they wouldn’t have to wait two years for NIL opportunities, Weerappuli said.”
this feels different than how we (just me?) generally perceive NIL. Even talented recruits (no, not all, but enough) aren’t just looking for millions to sign.
I love this. If you look through the website not only does the program provide legitimate service requirements to vetted nonprofits but they also plan to provide and require a course component (financial literacy, branding etc) that they run. That seems to be different than Ohio State and Notre Dame's similar offering.
Considering they have a heavy Michigan Ross presence on their board I think that's a big differentiator. Go Blue! I just donated!
For those that are Athletic subscribers, here is a full write up on the organization and the founder's journey. Pretty incredible origin story to be honest.
It also mentions they are partners with Valiant's Collective to round out the NIL space with Valiant focussing on commercial opportunities and Hail focussing on nonprofit engagement. I'm starting to see why this was a big deal. It's endorsed directly by Harbaugh himself.
Let the money cannon commence!
I was hoping someone had posted this info. And hope it's not paywalled.
One thing that caught my eye, one of the guys in charge started with a google search for Harbaugh's email to invite him to graduation, which led to a conversation about NIL, which led to Jim saying, "Let's go!"
This is great, but should have been ready on Day 1. Incredible we have top tier business and law schools and it still took this long to implement.
While agreeing with your sentiment, NIL concept, design, and implementation may not have been supported by the UM's former president.
Respectfully, I may disagree. NIL is the Wild, Wild West - and one aspect of this is trying to understand & figure it out. That takes some time.
Michigan will do things the “right” way - and, the Academic and Athletic leadership have their definition of what exactly that is.
So, it has taken longer (timewise) than many would have liked; but - it does seem like it’s both taking shape and worth the wait.
Giving back to the community and society - that’s part of the university’s mission, and something they take pride in. Supporting nonprofits is aligned with that.
About 8 months into a new role early in my career, I developed a strategy which helped my company earn a significant amount of money on a product which had not grown at the levels they wanted under previous leadership. The first thing the executive leader said was, "Why didn't you come up with this earlier?" My response, "Because, I, came up with it now".
Constantly questioning why everyone and everything else in the world doesn't meet your expectations leads to a very disappointing life. After two years of beating OSU, winning the B1G, and making the playoffs in football, be happy Michigan has this now.
MadGatter, to post a link, click the icon that looks like a link in a chain, at the top of the Comment box.
Wow! Ono bringing Michigan football into the modern era.
So people talk about the money cannon, let's see it
Oh, I'm sure it is already funded for AT LEAST this year. They probably have the $5mm secured which is why they announced their plans for that number.
March 30th, 2023 at 10:20 AM ^
Their goal is to raise 5 million dollars so as to pay each player on the team 40k.
Well, then they better market this platform better than they have the other ones
March 30th, 2023 at 10:22 AM ^
That's an atrociously embarrassing name, but whatever. It's what's under the hood that counts.