College NIL Money Used to Benefit People in a Village in Mali

I admit that I am a college sports fan.  The relaxed transfer rules and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) monies for athletes have changed college sports.  Although the changes are not in my view an improvement, I ran across this story that got me thinking.

Cal Bears basketball player, Mady Sissoko, who transferred from Michigan State, is using his NIL money for a very good cause:  

“He left his home village of Tangafoya, Mali, at the age of 15 to pursue a better life by playing basketball in the United States, a sport that he only loosely understood in a country that he could hardly imagine. Now 23 years old, Sissoko, a graduate student and starting center on the California men’s basketball team, has not just made the most of his own opportunity; he’s dramatically impacted the lives of those in Tangafoya for the better.
 
. . . . While most college athletes can profit from NIL, Sissoko attends school in the United States on a student visa and therefore is prohibited from directly benefitting from such opportunities.
 
Instead, Sissoko found a way within NCAA rules to give back to the people of Tangafoya. . . . [H]e created the Mady Sissoko Foundation –  a 501(c)(3) charity into which he has routed donations and other charitable contributions. He quickly surpassed the original goal of raising $50,000 and has since put the money toward building Tangafoya’s first school, a well for clean drinking water and an irrigation system for farming, the purchase of a tractor and soon, the construction of a medical clinic. Donations and support continue to come in through Sissoko’s GoFundMe campaign, which has raised more than $70,000.”

Go Bears!

KJ