Hail! Impact aims to change the NIL landscape at Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In what has been hinted at for weeks now sees an official launch with Hail! Impact holding its launch and fundraising event at the Chop House on Friday.

With speeches by two of the major players behind the new NIL outfit, Andy Johnson and Chin Weerappuli, the goal is to raise money to provide the non-profit with opportunities for student-athletes to not only have charitable efforts during their time at U-M but also have the opportunity to be paid as well.

Hail! Impact's current goal is to give every player signed up with the program a $40,000 yearly salary.

The NIL outfit has also been vetted and openly supported by both Jim Harbaugh and U-M president Santa Ono, who provided a statement of support for Hail! Impact during the short presentation.

Harbaugh has a testimonial that appears on the website

"Hail! Impact embodies our transformational philosophy on NIL by providing valuable service opportunities to our student-athletes while simultaneously benefiting the community we call home,” Harbaugh's statement read.

The next goal the initiative has is for Ono and the athletic department to publicly support the program as it has done with other collectives in the past.

On top of the charitable efforts, Weerappuli mentioned the elephant in the room when it comes to NIL.

To maintain a talented collegiate roster of players.

"Let’s call a spade a spade," Weerappuli told those in attendance. "NIL has changed the landscape of college athletics. To attract and retain top talent, you need to have a strong NIL program. We want to be transformational, but we also want to be amongst the best in the country to have those Saturdays that we've been having the last couple of years."

Below are some requirements and other factoids from the program that were explained during the presentation:

- Players will give 24 hours of 'high impact' service to local charities with the charities designing the initiatives from the student-athletes. Charities that have already signed up include the Humane Society of Huron Valley and Ele's Place.

- Leaders & Best Program: Leveraging programs from Michigan Ross and the law program with seminars that explains key aspects that are pertinent to NIL

- A one to two-page paper on the experience that will be shared with the coaching staff

- Charities receive 2,000 hours of high-impact service and a cash donation of up to $1,000,000 based on fundraising goals and targets that will be split evenly among the qualified charity partners.

- If fundraising goals are met, each player will receive a $40,000 stipend.

- 10% of every dollar the funds raised from the non-profit will go towards maintaining the program.

- 20% of every dollar from the funds raised will go to qualified charities

- 70% of every dollar from the funds raised will go to the student-athletes

You can find more information regarding Hail! Impact by checking out their website.

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