Zach Osterman, Indy Star
BLOOMINGTON – When Hoosiers For Good, the charity-based NIL collective now officially partnered with IU Athletics, formed its mission statement, its founders determined the collective needed a broad base of athlete representation.
One of the first collectives in the country built around partnering athletes and charities in the name, image and likeness space, Hoosiers For Good wanted to reach more than just the most mainstream sports. Its first class, which included 14 athletes across seven IU sports, represented the kind of diverse reach it wanted to achieve.
Executive Director Tyler Harris said he believes Hoosiers For Good achieved that once again in its winter class, announced Wednesday, partnering 19 athletes across eight IU programs with 11 total charities.
“When we first started Hoosiers For Good,” Harris said, “we made a commitment to be broad-based. The first class in the spring showed that, and this class does a great job representing those values as well.”
Wednesday marks the official announcement of the third class of athletes the collective has connected with charities through NIL deals. Hoosiers For Good’s first class debuted last April, while a basketball-exclusive (men’s and women’s) summer class was announced in August.
This week’s class includes partnerships — which via NIL rules allow athletes to receive monetary compensation — with five charities already in the fold, and six new organizations. Among the 19 athletes and partnered charities in the group confirmed Wednesday are:
Phillip Glasser, baseball, A Kid Again
Patrick McDonald, men’s soccer, and Bobby Whalen, baseball, Bloomington Health Foundation
Jaylin Lucas, football, Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington
Elle Hillers, volleyball, and Maddie Russin, track and field, Girls on the Run Central Indiana
Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sara Scalia, women’s basketball, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County
Sean Wracher, football, Healing Hands
Tarrin Gilliland, women’s swimming and diving, and Haley Hunter, water polo, Jump IN for Healthy Kids
Aaron Casey and Zach Carpenter, football, RecycleForce
Maouloune Goumballe and Brett Bebej, men’s soccer, Stone Belt
Josh Sales and Cam Camper, football, Stop The Violence Indianapolis
Noah Pierre and Kahlil Benson, football, Young & Established
Now online for close to a year, Hoosiers For Good, Harris said, has become more efficient in its ability to attract and onboard charitable partners interested in working in the NIL space. That’s pushed HFG to expand its ability to ensure athletes are properly supported and charitable partners receive maximum benefit from the relationship.
“It’s becoming more of a well-oiled machine, if you will, with our existing charity partners,” Harris said. “From that aspect, it’s less about education and more creativity. How can we use a new class of athletes to bring awareness to what we’re do?”
The collective declined to share a total compensation number for the class, but previous classes of similar scope have stretched well into six figures. The collective’s inaugural class last spring totaled $470,000 in athlete compensation, across 14 NIL deals.
Included in this class as well are two athletes — Wracher and Glasser — who pitched their partnerships through what Hoosiers For Good calls its charitable incubator program. The program encourages athletes to bring charitable in-state causes to the collective for potential partnerships.
Deals between athletes and charities stemming from that program are structured through NIL agreements, with Hoosiers For Good providing the athletes with the resources to execute those deals just as they would with a charity Hoosiers For Good paired with them independently.
These are the first two partnerships arranged through the charitable incubator program, a path Harris said he hopes more athletes will walk in the coming years.
“The two athletes we’ve signed for that have done a great job in identifying their projects,” Harris said. “They set a standard for future athletes in this.”
With close to a full year of operation now, Harris said Hoosiers For Good as a collective has started settling on best practices that have made finding both willing athletes and interested charitable partners much easier.
“I think certainly the process is a little bit more streamlined as we continue to grow more comfortable bringing charities on, and then subsequently partnerships with athletes,” Harris said. “I think the athletes now, they know we exist, and especially the athletes we’ve signed but new athletes we’ve had come to us, they’re excited to use their NIL to do something good in the community.”