Non-profits Can Benefit From Name, Image and Likeness
In 2008, I completed research and published my dissertation Motives and Values Associated with Intercollegiate Student-Athlete Community Service: Implication for Athletics Department Leadership. The other day, I was reading an article about name, image, and likeness (NIL) and thought to myself, my research might look quite different now given where intercollegiate athletics is because of NIL.
It has been 16 months since NIL was implemented. For those who don’t know what NIL is, let me share that it is the ability for student-athletes to monetize their name, image, or likeness. Prior to July 2021, student-athletes were unable to profit from the use of their own name, image, or likeness if they were utilizing their position as a student-athlete to support the commercial endeavor. As an example, to have utilize their name, image, and/or likeness in a revenue-generating opportunity, student-athletes would have to completely scrubed their social media of any materials that would connect them to being a student-athlete. They could have then given a lesson, started a YouTube channel, or write a book once they had disassociated themselves from the identity and entity that was so important to their self-worth and in many ways legitimized the commercial opportunity they were pursuing. However, it did not mean they couldn’t be listed on the athletics department website as a student-athlete. Compliance officers were constantly educating student-athlete, coaches, staff, donors, fans, and family members on what was and what was not allowed. Frankly, they still are doing that, but with a few new twists.
Community Service Prior to NIL
Let’s think back to what community service was prior to NIL. Non-profit organizations across the country would reach out to athletics departments, coaches, and players asking if they would be willing to visit a hospital with kids who had cancer, speak to students at an elementary school about the importance of going to college, participate in a charity event as a “celebrity” speaker or waiter, read to students during love of reading week to name a just few of the types of requests.
When I completed my research 14 years ago, there were many significant findings, however I will share four findings with foremost implications on institutions and student-athletes.
Community Service Research Findings
1) Student-athlete’s involvement in community service through athletics departments benefited the entire university. At the time, because of the policies of the NCAA, each Division I University needed to provide a community service component as an element of its CHAMPS Life Skills Program. Coaches and administrators used this policy to encourage student-athletes to take advantage of their high-profile status in the university and participate in meaningful and valuable community service activities on and off campus. Through my research, these activities were welcomed in the community, enhanced the town, grew relationships, and yielded positive public relations for the student-athletes, the athletics department, and the university.
2) The findings implied that the values and motives sensed by student-athletes while participating in community service activities transcended the mandated or required nature of community service policies of the athletics department. Because of the athletics culture, student-athletes’ view of community service was different from other students within the university. The findings revealed these reasons for this view:
· Service opportunities were provided to student-athletes, hence it was easier for student-athletes to participate in such opportunities.
· Often, student-athletes were asked or required to participate in organized community service opportunities by a staff member or coach.
· The student-athletes believed when someone asked or required them to participate in community service, it was “just something they did” as a student-athlete.
· Mandatory community service was not often viewed as a negative activity, but more of an obligation or a part of the role of being a student-athlete. Results from the study, pointed out that student-athletes appreciated the support of their fans and wanted to thank them by giving back to the community.
3) The importance of the motivation and value factors to student-athletes indicated that six motivation factors (being asked, social responsibility, being required, volunteer with intrinsic reward, career experience, participation in a group/organization) and three value factors (helping others, personal status, and friends and family) played a role in a student-athletes community service participation. However, the value of helping others was by far the most often mentioned reason for participating in community service. Regardless of the student-athletes’ demands of academics and athletics, they carved out extra time to make a difference in someone else’s life.
4) The value of personal status was statistically significant six times throughout the study. It is important to note that the value of personal status had higher statistical significance for males than females who participate in community service. I speculated that males may have had an inflated value of personal status because of the athletics culture, since males participated in higher profile revenue generating sports connected to professional teams compared to female student-athletes. Nonetheless, male, and female student-athletes valued the personal status gained by participating in community service.
Community Outreach with NIL
Fast forward to today, one wonders how many community service activities are still happening across the country within Athletics Departments. Are these athletics departments still needing staff to manage the magnitude of the requests or has that shifted because of NIL? Are coaches and players still being asked to volunteer their time for a worthy cause or has it shifted to non-profit organizations or Collectives paying for student-athletes to engage? Are players now being hired instead of volunteering for a local non-profit? Are autographed balls being signed to donate to charities or are student-athletes getting paid to sign autographed balls? Quite possibly, all the above is happening.
I have numerous stories of my time in athletics, but one I remember well centered around our community outreach efforts and autographed balls. We annually coordinated autographed ball signing session with teams. It was something we did to help limit the number of times the student-athletes were asked to sign a ball and it also streamlined the ability for the department to support various non-profits in a consistent manner. I would explain the process to the participating team and shared that all the autographed balls would be used for charity. During a particular session, one player shared that he believed the players should be getting something for participating in this activity. That was more than 13 years ago which demonstrates that NIL has been on student-athletes minds for a long time.
I thought I might share an interesting situation that occurred to demonstrate the desire for student-athlete autographs and why we tried to streamline the process. Through our process, we asked each student-athlete to sign the ball in the same exact spot on every ball. One day, a man came into my office to let me know a particular student-athlete had not signed a ball he had purchased at an auction. The fan wanted me to get it signed by the student-athlete. I will never forget the fan’s response when I asked to look at the ball. I then compared it to the autographed balls displayed by year in my office. My response, “I am sorry sir, this ball was not signed through our official signing process and because of that, I won’t be able to help you.” He looked at me, tilted his head, and said “fine” and walked out of my office. I believe he was a bit embarrassed that he got caught in a little white lie.
Today, things are different because of NIL. Individuals involved in college athletics hope that the true essence of volunteerism doesn’t completely go away. With that said, the value of personal status mentioned in my research 14 years ago does relate to what NIL offers student-athletes by monetizing their brand. Many grew up believing and participating in community service – the act of volunteering your time for something good. During the qualitative portion of my research, student-athletes indicated that they wanted to give back like their college idols did when they were a kid.
Fourteen years ago, the research showed the value of student-athlete community involvement, for the student, the university and the community. My hope is that student-athletes will continue to embrace the concept of genuine community service, as well as monetizing their brand. It can be a win-win for them and for the non-profit sector if they choose to participate in both.
How can non-profits benefit?
Currently, non-profits are utilizing the strong social media followings and the even stronger than typical engagement rates that student-athletes have with their followers to help promote non-profit organizations and causes. Furthermore, organizations that want to target generally harder to reach demographics such as men under 50 as well as men/women 18-30 have found success with student-athletes because of their followers in those areas.
The scuttlebutt is that international student-athletes can’t benefit from NIL because of VISA regulations and that is not completely factual. The primary difference between international student-athletes and domestic student-athletes is that international student-athletes cannot be compensated for physical work performed. NIL allows them to enter into agreements with commercial entities to allow the use of their name, image, and/or likeness provided they don’t do any physical work associated with the agreement. For example:
· An organization could utilize the name or image of a student-athlete on their social media channels to promote a product, service, or cause.
· An organization could sell merchandise with the international student-athlete’s name, image, or likeness on it.
· An organization could name a product, service, or cause after an international student-athlete, such as “International Student-Athlete’s Signature Dish” or “International Student-Athlete’s Fundraiser for Children”
If you work at a non-profit or are on the board of a non-profit, keep in mind that you can now hire a student-athlete. A student-athlete can sit at the ninth hole on a golf course and hit the first ball in a scramble tournament, give a motivational speech at a dinner, take pictures at a photo booth, or promote your non-profit on social media.
Your marketing dollars might go a long way to draw a “celebrity” student-athletes to your event or promote the non-profit and the crowd may just follow.
Some helpful tips for non-profits:
1. Research if any student-athlete has a passion for the purpose of the non-profit you are involved with. For example, many have family members facing unique health issues, or a serving in the armed forces, or enjoy participating in the arts.
2. Find a donor who will donate to the non-profit and designate the purpose to pay the honorarium for a student-athlete to work an event or be a social media influencer.
3. Reach out to a local “Collective” to find out if they can help hire a student-athlete for your non-profit activities and learn what the process is to make that happen.
4. Visit the university’s website to find out the process for NIL activities to ensure proper procedures are followed.
5. Promote the upcoming appearance in all marketing materials.
6. If you are paying the student-athlete, be mindful to not publicize it as “community service” since it is a paid appearance.
On that same note, athletics departments across the country should be mindful to only promoting “genuine” community service activities on social media and websites as #communityservice and #giveback, when the student-athlete is volunteering and expereinces the feelings of doing good.
