How Will Shipley, K.J. Henry used NIL to start Clemson endowment

When Clemson announced during its regular-season finale against South Carolina that running back Will Shipley and EDGE K.J. Henry will provide five-figure donations from their NIL earnings to the “1 CLEM5ON” endowment they’ve established, it provided a rare example of current college athletes giving back to their university while they’re still enrolled.

The endowment will support Clemson’s Harvey and Lucinda Gantt Multicultural Center, the athletic department’s “Hear Her Roar” campaign and the P.A.W. Journey program.

TigerImpact Executive Director Bobby Couch, who worked as assistant director of athletics and IPTAY executive director of major gifts at Clemson before joining the nonprofit NIL collective, provided additional insight into the two players and the culture at Clemson.

He said the 1 CLEM5ON endowment could help bring recognition to the university’s new women’s gymnastics and lacrosse programs.

“When you couple this NIL opportunity in a culture that I just described, then what it begins to do is it begins to open up Will and K.J.,” Couch said in an interview after the announcement. “They begin to look more inside Clemson and say, ‘Hey, how can I help? How can I be an example? How can I charge and challenge other student-athletes that now have this opportunity to give back?’ The most expressive way to do that and the most selfless way to do it is in a manner in which you are supporting both academics and athletics.”

Couch stressed that the players’ decision to start the endowment was their own.

“This was not somebody putting a proposal in front of Will and K.J. and saying, ‘Hey, would y’all consider doing this?'” he said. “I just want to make sure that that’s not lost in all this.”

Will Shipley, K.J. Henry use NIL to help others

Shipley and Henry were two of the first athlete ambassadors TigerImpact signed and they’ve used their NIL opportunities to help their family or community even prior to establishing the endowment.

Couch credited the players’ families. He said the philanthropic spirit Shipley and Henry have exhibited is a trait that’s often learned in childhood.

Shipley previously donated $10,000 of his NIL earnings to the Charlotte-based Levine Children’s Hospital. Henry helped pay for his father’s kidney transplant.

“Knowing and understand your platform and the impact that you can have in serving others, to me, that’s a description that fits a lot of our student-athletes,” Couch said.

When Henry started promoting the nonprofit Help Hope Live, which helps kidney transplant candidates, the organization’s traffic increased by 4,000 percent in a month, according to Couch. Couch said a number of Clemson athletes started an $80,000 fund for Help Hope Live to help families in need.

“I think when they have more opportunities and they are receiving more NIL dollars through other avenues, they see that they’re just getting so much more out of it by giving back,” Couch said.

Couch said when Shipley visited the Levine Children’s Hospital, one young patient was scheduled to be released from the hospital the following day and Shipley joined him in a TikTok video.

“This was something they wanted to step forward and do,” Couch said, “and take money out of their own pockets and put it into an endowment, which will live forever and it’s going to also challenge others to support moving forward.”