Despite growing concerns about the generous goals of it and other organizations that pay NCAA athletes, BPS Foundation, the volunteer companion of NIL social operator Blueprint Sports, reported receiving$ 14 million in contributions last year, more than quadrupling its earlier annual amount.
Of the 2023 revenue it raised, BPS Foundation distributed$ 9.4 million to athletes, according to a copy of the a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit’s 2023 federal tax return.
Blueprint Sports, which operates or provides to more than 25 for-profit NIL cooperatives nationwide, is a part of the BPS Foundation’s shared companies agreement. In 2023, the base paid the firm$ 1.05 million in management expenses, the tax filing shows.
The two companies ‘ marriage, as Sportico recently reported, has drawn scrutiny from nonprofit authorities, who question the people advantage of paying college athletes—even if, as BPS Foundation asserts, it facilitates their relationship with other public organizations. In consequence, the basis serves as a tax-deductible passthrough enabling contributors to obtain a write-off for cash that eventually go to Blueprint’s for-profit communes.

As a 501c( 3 ) organization, the BPS Foundation will continue to operate in accordance with IRS rules and regulations, according to executive director Andrew Beisel in a statement. The organization will also “provide a formal update” on its future before the end of this year.
In 2023, BPS Foundation reported raising funds to compensate people at Arizona, North Carolina State, Boston College, Montana State, Penn State, Nevada, UNLV, Gonzaga and UC Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, the tax return disclosed the following sources of revenue:$ 250, 000 from Arizona donor Chuck Tyler,$ 335, 000 from U of A donors Cole and Jeannie Davis,$ 600, 000 from N. C. State donor Andy Albright, and$ 616, 575 from N. C. State donor Brian McMurray.
In addition, Reaching Champions Joining Hearts (RCJH) Foundation, an NIL donation supporting Kansas Jayhawks sports, paid BPS Foundation$ 560, 720 in 2023. That cash, according to Beisel, was related to activities that would be reported in a later profit. ( Blueprint Sports runs the KU-focused for-profit collective, Mass St. )
Rob Sine, the agency’s CEO, who served as BPS’ leader before resigning from that place next year, and Cisco Aguilar, the latest secretary of state of Nevada, co-founded Blueprint Sports.
The Internal Revenue Service designated the organization as a 501( c )( 3 ) in July 2022. However, last June, Lynne Camillo, the IRS assistant associate chief counsel, wrote a letter arguing that the primary advantages for athletes provided by booster-funded NIL cooperatives probably undermined their claims of operating for an exempt function.

According to Camillo,” student-athletes normally gain from a nonprofit NIL social through the compensation that the NIL receives for its NIL usage.” ” This personal benefit is never a consequence but is quite a fundamental part of a nonprofit NIL group’s actions”.
In answer, a number of communes that were seeking tax-exempt standing decided to ditch that course of action. Although Camillo’s letter was not bound, in April, the guardian publication Tax Notes published a edited version of a rejection notice the IRS sent to a shared that embodied her view.
Earlier this month, Blueprint Sports announced that it had “raised and distributed” more than$ 50 million in NIL money for this current year, bringing its total NIL haul to$ 70 million since 2021.