There's "legal" and there is "within the rules". The avoidance of the Duke BB funding group to identify how much is paid to the players calls into question if this payment is for Name, Image, or Likeness, which is allowed, or simply pay-to-play, which I think isn't allowed. If player X makes an appearance in an ad, then there should be traceable payments. If player X is paid without any corresponding NIL activity, what's that?
On the "legal" side, it also makes me wonder what the IRS sees when it looks at the income of the players.
The article indicates this OVFF was incorporated as a non-profit. But I note that when I search the IRS for a tax-exempt organization by that name, I wasn't able to find it. That's ok by me if it is not claimed to be a have a charitable exemption.
IMO (IANAL), NIL is *not* a charitable purpose, any more than giving money to the SF 49ers, their players, or any GoFundMe fund. One is not giving money for education, charity, or any public purpose.
This goes for Lifetime Cardinal too. When I go to their page, I note I do NOT see any claim that they are a tax-exempt organization. That seems odd that they neither claim nor deny tax-exempt status, and ask for donations. Donor beware!
The
web page indicates "Lifetime Cardinal" is a LLC. The
California Secretary of State indicates there is a Lifetime Cardinal, LLC with initial filing in March 2023, incorporated in Delaware, with address in NY, with its agent in Glendale, CA. There is a separate entity, "Lifetime Cardinal Community Fund", initial filing March 2025 (ie, less than a month ago), incorporated in Delaware, with its agent in Glendale, CA.
The State of New York does not list either organization in its
charities search.
The
State of California DOJ/AG indicates Lifetime Cardinal Community Fund is an unregistered (I presume that means "in California") organization. FEIN 993695562.
The
California FTB indicates that Lifetime Cardinal, LLC is not exempt.
It also indicates that Lifetime Cardinal Community Fund is not exempt. (But, I would double check that, considering the IRS letter below)
The
IRS does list that organization as receiving tax-exempt status 12/11/2024, with filing date of 12/31. The IRS does not currently list the Form 990 for that organization (determined to be a public charity) that was due on 12/31/2024.
I suppose a fund could claim that it spent some amount of money (say $10,000) to pay one athlete to show up at an event that has some public purpose (say, to not use drugs). Depending on the amount of money involved and the nature of the public purpose, it might pass the sniff test. But, if it were that $10M were spent to have 100 players show up at the athletic department annual banquet, that wouldn't pass the sniff test.