Northwestern’s TrueNU Using NIL To Raise Money For Charity

Northwestern’s football players are leveraging their partnerships to raise money for charitable events like Lift for Life.

Dec 23, 2023; Las Vagas, NV, USA; Northwestern Wildcats players sing the Wildcats fight song after defeating the Utah Utes 14-7 to win the Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium. / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Many Northwestern athletes work with TrueNU, a collective that helps Wildcats build partnerships with local charities through Name, Image and Likeness deals.

That applies to all 19 of Northwestern’s men’s and women’s sports. But football is helping to take its annual charity event to another level, thanks to those partnerships.

For more than a decade Northwestern football is a part of Uplifting Athletes, which Penn State started more than a decade ago. As part of that, Northwestern football players participate in an event called Lift for Life, which raises money to help fight rare diseases.

Lift for Life is simple. It’s a bench press competition that pits offensive players against defensive players. The two sides lift 225-pound bench presses and leading up to the event get friends, family and Northwestern fans to pledge donations based on the number of times they lift.

This year, Northwestern players used their NIL to help increase donations, according to a story on TrueNU’s web site.

Jacob Schmidt, TrueNU’s executive director, said his group has been able to create deals with every participating player and Uplifting Athletes. They took their first pass at this a year ago and helped the football players raised $45,000, which was one of the largest totals among the Uplifting Athletes chapter around the country.

Now, it’s becoming more prevalent. Wildcats senior defensive back Garner Wallace agreed to an NIL deal with Sour Punch candy, a deal that included some social media videos for the brand. As part of the deal he got Sour Punch to donate $5,000 to Lift for Life.

Northwestern continues to make Lift for Life as big an event as it can. This year’s event took place in the Walter Athletic Center and it included a smoke machine and cheering fans made to make it seem like it was a football game.

If this year’s event went anything like last year’s event, then the Wildcats likely broke last year’s record. And as players get more savvy about using their NIL money to support charity those fund-raising numbers will only rise.