Boilermaker Alliance looks to work with for-profit companies, expand staff

Jeff McKean had to pause and contemplate the question: How does he think the Boilermaker Alliance is progressing?

“We feel wonderful about the Boilermaker Alliance, where it is, what we’ve been able to accomplish so far, what’s on the horizon,” said McKean, who is the CEO and president of the organization.

The Boilermaker Alliance website touts itself as “a nonprofit that uses the name-image-likeness of Purdue University student-athletes to help them make a difference through charitable giving.”

The organization isn’t even a year old, born over the summer and working alongside the university’s Boilermaker Marketplace Exchange that was launched in April 2022 to give Purdue a robust name, image and likeness offering for student-athletes.

The Boilermaker Alliance already has staged numerous functions that have benefited Purdue athletes while also supporting charities. To conduct those functions, money must be raised. It’s an on-going process. And McKean seems pleased but is unwilling to reveal how much money the Boilermaker Alliance has in its coffers.

“We actually have a board policy to not publicly get into that,” said McKean, who notes the Boilermaker Alliance is not tethered to the university. “We just think those numbers will never help. We think they can always be used against you. We’ve received significant contributions.

“But, again, there’s a lot of work to be done. And looking at the needs in the upcoming year, we are really focused on development and fundraising. As you might expect, that’s the key to being able to provide the programs and the opportunities that you want to provide, so that’s really important.”

It’s time for the Boilermaker Alliance to evolve. And one of the more immediate goals is to add employees. For now, the only full-time employee is Jared Thomas, the director of operations and engagement.

“We’ve taken things to the point where we can with having just one employee and everybody else trying to work off the side of our desk,” said McKean. “It has gotten complex enough that we need to build some things out in order to take us to the next level.”

What positions is the Boilermaker Alliance looking to add?

“Lots of areas,” said McKean. “There’s just a lot of logistical stuff that goes into every single thing we do. And we just need people at some varying levels. Marketing, PR, development, some different areas.”

Another looming change: working with for-profit organizations. For now, the Boilermaker Alliance has been built on a not-for-profit model, working exclusively with charitable endeavors.

“But we are also looking at setting up a separate entity that would be able to also handle the for-profit situations,” said McKean. “There are a lot of Purdue companies that want to help, that want to participate. Businesses aren’t concerned about the tax deductible status, because they can write things off as business expenses.

“But those businesses generally want a quid pro quo. They want sponsorship, they want advertising. If an athlete is going to come, they want to be able to benefit. Under the not-for-profit model, you can’t really do that.”

It’s part of the continuing evolution of the Boilermaker Alliance.

“I would say we think we have an amazing program that is among the best nation-wide for the type of group that we are,” said McKean. “We’re involved in some groups, some consortiums with other similar groups. We think we’re held in very high regard in those sorts of situations. We think the complexity of what we’re doing exceeds most. And the people that organize those consortiums regularly reach out to us to ask if we would help mentor other programs, to talk to them about best practices.

“So, from that standpoint, yes, we love where we’re going now. I would say we’ve been very successful in our fundraising efforts, but there’s certainly work to be done.”