IRS: Temple NIL collective reported less than $50,000 in 2022

The TUFF Fund that supports Temple athletes is believed to be the first of the dozens of name, image and likeness collectives that filed for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code whose 990 filing for the 2022 tax period is now available. Tax-exempt organizations must file a 990 with the Internal Revenue Service, which will make public the financial information about those nonprofit organizations.

This includes NIL collectives whose executives chose to establish their organization – or at least one of its wings – under a nonprofit structure, such as TigerImpact, which supports athletes at Clemson, The Foundation and Cohesion Foundation at Ohio State and Volunteer Legacy at Tennessee.

These forms submitted to the IRS will provide a rare window into verifiable financial information regarding the national NIL landscape, which simultaneously features calls for greater transparency and privacy. On3 will report on the financial information that collectives file in a 990 as the IRS makes them available.

There are a few types of forms in which a nonprofit organization can file a 990.

According to the TUFF Fund’s Form 990-N (e-Postcard), its gross receipts weren’t greater than $50,000 in the 2022 tax period that ended Dec. 31, 2022. Since the TUFF Fund filed a Form 990-N, that’s the only financial information available for the collective.

“We have our own little corner of college athletics,” TUFF Fund executive director Andy Carl told On3.

The IRS’ website says most small organizations that receive less than $50,000 fall into this category of filing a Form 990-N, which is submitted electronically. A Form 990-N requires less information than other versions of a 990 filing, limited to categories such as the organization’s name, mailing address and website URL.

“Small tax-exempt organizations generally are eligible to file Form 990-N to satisfy their annual reporting requirement if their annual gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less,” according to the IRS. “Gross receipts are the total amounts the organization received from all sources during its annual accounting period, without subtracting any costs or expenses.”

An organization’s gross receipts are “considered to be normally $50,000 or less” if the organization has been in existence for one year or less, and it has received, or donors have pledged to give, $75,000 or less during the first tax year.

The TUFF Fund received its determination letter from the IRS on Oct. 16, 2022, when the IRS determined the organization is a public charity, so there were only two and a half months remaining in that tax year when it received notice of its federal tax exemption.

Its exemption has an effective date starting Aug. 8, 2022.

On3 asked Carl if the IRS’ designation of “gross receipts not greater than $50,000” means the TUFF Fund indeed received less than $50,000 last year, given that the label allows for first-year receipts and pledges to be up to $75,000.

“From that timeframe on, that seems to be about right in terms of the gross filing,” Carl said.

TUFF Fund has signed ‘close to 20’ athletes

Carl expressed not only a willingness but excitement about discussing the TUFF Fund’s organizational structure and its Form 990-N.

“I knew this day was coming,” Carl said. “I was excited for this. You’re probably going to see some eye-opening data. I know that there is that handwringing about the tax deductibility of individual donations. To be honest with you, I don’t know how different it is than a company writing off their expense as a marketing expense for their company and lessening their tax exposure on income.

“I mean it’s an ever-changing world, right?”

Carl shared the scope of the TUFF Fund’s NIL agreements with Temple athletes.

“I know that we’re not under the auspices of Title IX but, like, I care about that, right?” said Carl, who received a Masters of Education in Sport Administration at Temple and who later worked for the athletic department for a year. “I care about providing opportunities, and so in terms of that, I think we probably signed close to 20 student-athletes and this is just offhand but I would say we were maybe 60 percent male, 40 percent female.”

‘We’ll never have some of the larger donors or companies’

TUFF Fund donors can decide whether their contribution goes to a specific athletic program or a general fund. However, Carl said most donors choose the former. For the collective’s general funds, “We utilize the resources as best we can to make the most impactful impact, if you will, on the university,” Carl said.

In early February, soon after the start of a new tax year, the TUFF Fund announced it raised $20,000 through a campaign that included a $10,000 match from an anonymous donor.

“I’m basically a one-man show,” he said. “I’m a volunteer. Most of the fundraising is done by me and so we try and do our best with the resources that we have. I’m proud of the effort that we’ve had. But I don’t envision us ever being this industry-leading – you know we will do our best to stick to our mission, provide our student-athletes an opportunity. And I think by the end of the semester, we’ll have at least one NIL agreement with a student-athlete from every sport, which is one of the missions that I set out to when we began this and it’s something that I’m proud of.

“We’re looking to find different ways to make impact beyond financials because we’ll never have some of the larger donors or companies that make significant seven-figure check donations and to be honest with you, it may not even fit our mission to begin with.”

As Carl described the TUFF Fund’s mission, he said, “We set out from the very beginning of the understanding that this was not going to be, for lack of a better term, a dog and pony show of having faux initiatives.”

He was especially proud of the TUFF Fund’s partnership with the nonprofit organization Hoops 4 Hope, which TUFF Fund promoted on its YouTube channel, which allowed Temple men’s basketball players to support a basketball league for individuals who are experiencing homelessness.

“They would go weekly and sit on the bench and provide camaraderie and fraternization and share a meal and share tips, stories, and then at the end of the league, we provided an opportunity for all the league members to come to a men’s basketball game and reciprocate the support,” he said.

TUFF Fund’s Form 990-N won’t ‘surprise anybody’

Since the transfer portal window opened, Temple men’s basketball players Khalif Battle, Jamille Reynolds, Hysier Miller, Nick Jourdain, Damian Dunn and Zach Hicks have entered the transfer portal. The Owls finished with a 16-16 record in their fourth season under coach Aaron McKie.

The university announced in a news release in mid-March that McKie and athletic director Arthur Johnson “mutually agreed” that McKie wouldn’t return as coach. He’ll instead transition into a role as a special advisor in the athletic department. Temple then hired Penn State assistant coach Adam Fisher to replace McKie. In late March, the Twitter account for Temple’s athletic department promoted the TUFF Fund as one way for fans to help athletes with NIL opportunities.

“We’ve seen significant growth since we’ve named a new men’s basketball coach,” Carl said.

Battle committed to Arkansas, while three of his now-former teammates committed to other schools within the American Athletic Conference. Dunn committed to Houston, and he since signed with the collective LinkingCoogs. Jourdain committed to Memphis, and Reynolds committed to Cincinnati.

“I don’t think the numbers that you report will surprise anybody affiliated with Temple,” Carl said. “We have put a call out. If you look at the transfer portal and how it’s impacted us over the last few weeks, it’s been significant.”

Miller later withdrew his name from the transfer portal.

“It’s no longer the ‘Wild West,’ it’s just the West,” Carl said, when talking about the current landscape of college athletics. “This is the West. This is our new normal, and we either adapt or die, honestly. You either participate in something like this and we’re already two years in, so the uptick has been slower at some places than others and if you do not participate and function in an aggressive manner, I think it’s a very distinct line in the sand of whether the university wants to participate in legitimate and whatever the nouveau college athletics is, or you kind of make the decision that you get whatever’s left.”