We checked the most recent IRS data for dozens of collectives. Here's what we learned:

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Today, we’re bringing back old newsletter friend Andy Wittry for another examination of IRS data.

Last January, we examined 40 IRS 990s from non-profit NIL collectives in an attempt to better understand their fundraising efforts. While this was a useful exercise, the most current 990 data we had was from 2022, relatively early in the NIL era. Many large collectives hadn’t really become fully operational yet.

Now that many 990s from 2023 are available, we attempted to do the same…even as the legal environment surrounding collectives, NIL, and athlete compensation has dramatically changed. 

On average, non-profit collectives more than doubled their fundraising levels from 2022 to 2023 — from the first full calendar year of the NIL era to Year 2 — according to their latest available tax filings. Many tax filings from 2023 became available in the fall of 2024, which is why we’re analyzing 2023 data in 2025.

However, 2023 also marked the last year of existence for some collectives amid increased regulatory scrutiny.

A May 2023 IRS memo concluded that many nonprofit collectives operate for a non-exempt purpose. The IRS has denied at least eight collectives’ applications for 501(c)(3) status and the federal agency recently named collectives as a compliance enforcement priority for 2025…or at least it did before the change to the Trump administration.

For the more than 30 collectives whose 990s are available for both 2022 and 2023, their revenue increased by an average of 113% year over year. Their totals are graphed in the scatter plot below.

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