Syracuse NIL Collective Launches $500K Fundraising Campaign

Orange United, a Syracuse NIL collective, launched a donation campaign through December 11th to match monthly subscriptions totaling up to $250,000.

Orange United, a Syracuse University Athletics NIL collective, has announced a fundraising campaign through December 11, 2023. The collective, which launched in September, is run by the Student Athlete Name, Image and Likeness (SANIL) program - they operate several dozen other collectives including at Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. Atlanta-based SANIL has a deal in place with multi-media rights company LEARFIELD as well. At launch, the school announced that the annual fundraising goal was between $6-9 million.

Orange United features subscription packages for fans to purchase, ranging from $10.99/month ("The Express") to $249.99/month ("Honor 44"). A variety of items are included in these deals - from access to content and store vouchers to "meet the team" family packages and autographed memorabilia. 

Businesses can also purchase packages starting at $250.00/month ("Gold"), up to $1,000.00/month ("Diamond"). Businesses get many of the same items from the individual donor packages, but also benefit from student-athlete social media posts and on-site visits.

Mark Hayes, who was the vice president of sales and revenue development for the Syracuse Crunch since 2017, serves as General Manager of Orange United. Former Syracuse athletes Joe Burton, Keenan Hale, Justyn Knight and Karen Zajick along with former Congressman John Katko and Dave Meluni, an associate teaching professor of sport management at Syracuse, sit on Orange United’s board of directors.

Hayes told InSide The Loud House that the matching campaign is “the first of many major fundraising campaigns” by Orange United. Approximately $260,000 was raised by a group of donors to provide the "matching amount." Any subscription of $25 or more (the closest membership is "Dome Sweet Dome" at $25.99/mo) qualifies for the matching program. "We want to let people know they can make a difference, by pulling all these fan memberships together.”

Hayes added that approximately 50-75 'Cuse student-athletes will be contracted to make social media posts about the campaign. In total, Syracuse has over 600 student-athletes across 20 varsity sports.