NIL Athlete Ask

An Invitation to NIL Athletes: Advancing Community and Environmental Healing

Please Read First

This letter extends an invitation to explore a potential community initiative. It does not constitute an offer to sell securities, nor a solicitation for investment, and should not be interpreted as financial, legal, or tax advice. Seven Years of Change is an emerging civic and economic platform, still developing its legal structure, governance, and documentation. Any return described in this letter, including the six percent figure, reflects the platform's current design intent for a maximum ceiling. It is not a guaranteed, promised, or offered yield, and no security is being offered through this letter. Nothing here creates obligations for any athlete, advisor, or family member. Should a formal opportunity ever arise, it would be presented exclusively through official documentation detailing terms, risks, responsibilities, and protections. Every reader is strongly encouraged to consult with a fee-only fiduciary advisor, legal counsel, tax professional, and trusted family members before making any commitment.

 Why I Am Writing to You

You are part of a generation of college athletes who have achieved what many before you could not: direct access to economic opportunity through your name, image, and likeness. For decades, universities, conferences, and media entities amassed significant profits from the visibility, labor, and talent of college athletes, while the athletes themselves saw little direct benefit. That era has changed, in part due to sustained public pressure, legal challenges, and landmark cases such as O'Bannon v. NCAA and the House v. NCAA settlement. Today, billions flow annually to college athletes through NIL and new revenue-sharing pathways. This is money that you have earned.

I am not seeking to appropriate your earnings, nor am I requesting the use of your name, image, or likeness. This is not an endorsement proposal. Nothing here is intended to affect your eligibility, nor is this pay-for-play. I am addressing you as a potential investor and community partner, someone with a platform and a unique opportunity to build something that endures beyond collegiate athletics.

The truth, unvarnished, is that NIL compensation is real but unevenly distributed, and for many athletes the window is brief. The majority of funds are allocated to a select few sports and athletes, and even significant earners may only enjoy this opportunity for a limited period. You have likely already been advised to treat this money as seed capital rather than discretionary income. The choices you make now can either dissipate quickly or foster enduring value long after your athletic career concludes. The critical question becomes: where should you invest this seed?

The Conventional Path and Its Costs

Often, athletes are steered toward conventional investments such as real estate investment trusts. This is a typical, reasonable option: invest in a fund, the fund pursues yield, and, if successful, returns are distributed. Yet it is worth interrogating the origin of that yield. Frequently, these returns are generated by extracting maximum rents, minimizing costs, and squeezing value from tenants and workers. Community becomes little more than a resource to be commodified in service of investor returns. Rarely does this wealth cycle back to the neighborhoods that most need it, particularly those many athletes have come from. Places characterized by high rents, weak infrastructure, food insecurity, debt, poor housing, and limited access to capital. This is the gap I wish to illuminate.

There is tremendous wealth circulating within sports, but almost no intentional, scalable mechanism to direct that wealth toward community repair. The capital exists; the channel does not, yet. Seven Years of Change is designed to become that channel.

A New Model for Community Investment

Seven Years of Change is a coordination platform established to move communities beyond survival toward distributed, positive ownership of the systems on which they rely. The model rests on three pillars: housing, nutrition, and transportation. Each represents a space where patient, fairly priced capital can produce genuine social value while remaining tied to tangible assets and measurable outcomes. I invite you to consider supporting all three pillars, not for a maximized return, but for a capped one.

The platform's design intent is a maximum return of six percent, not as a promise, but as a principled ceiling. In community-focused work, the distinction between a fair return and extraction is essential. Six percent reflects a reasonable yield connected to real assets and genuine community benefit; anything beyond that is redirected into further community repair. This cap is a defining feature, setting Seven Years of Change apart from traditional extractive investment models.

Pillars of the Platform

Housing is a particularly powerful venue for patient, capped capital. By financing community-owned, permanently affordable housing, whether through new construction, deep energy retrofits, adaptive reuse of commercial properties, or conversion of underused buildings, investors can catalyze lasting community benefit. Such projects facilitate energy independence, driving down costs for families and allowing resources to remain within the neighborhood. This approach also enables development in lower-cost regions, provided the necessary support infrastructure exists.

Nutrition Hubs address urgent food insecurity, establishing prepared-meal, restaurant-partnership, and local food distribution systems that provide healthy, affordable options through delivery and community engagement. These are not acts of charity, but engines of local economic activity, employing residents as growers, cooks, drivers, and suppliers. The impact is immediate: improved health, reduced debt, and greater family stability.

Transportation infrastructure is foundational. Access to work, education, healthcare, and support services depends on reliable transit. Seven Years of Change finances vehicles and localized transportation solutions, delivering practical, asset-backed improvements that can transform daily life, helping someone retain employment, access care, or connect with other community services. These tangible outcomes are particularly meaningful for athletes whose earning windows may be brief and who wish to see a direct, positive effect from their investment.

The Climate Imperative

Climate action is integrated, not ancillary. Seven Years of Change treats ambitious climate goals as a baseline. When neighborhoods achieve energy independence and efficiency, the economic calculus shifts: families spend less on fossil fuels, local capital is retained, and sustainable systems flourish. This approach also positions the platform to attract mission-aligned investment from diverse partners, through green banks and community-owned enterprises. Climate and economic repair are inseparable; together, they underpin community resilience and a truly sustainable return.

Why This Matters for NIL Athletes

You are likely already wary of the many parties seeking your attention in the NIL marketplace. Skepticism is warranted; trust must be earned through sustained transparency and accountability. A capped, mission-driven investment differs fundamentally from many athlete-focused pitches. The platform is designed to be women-led, locally embedded, and publicly accountable. My responsibility is to construct and explain the model, not to exercise indefinite control.

Many of you are already personally invested in community work, social justice, family stability, and opportunity creation. This model offers a means to translate that commitment into capital aligned with your values and positioned for measurable impact. Not as a donation, not as a publicity stunt, but as patient capital tied to real assets and a concrete return ceiling.

What I Am and Am Not Asking

I am not seeking your name, image, or likeness. I am not requesting endorsements or anything that would compromise your eligibility. There is no pay-for-play. No decision is expected today, and no security is being offered through this letter. I am simply inviting you to consider becoming an early investor in Seven Years of Change, across housing, food, and transportation, for a return capped at six percent in accordance with the platform's philosophy. Every dollar above that threshold is intended to remain within the community, fueling further stabilization, opportunity, and environmental repair.

When the legal framework is established, I would welcome the opportunity to walk you, your advisor, and your family through the model, detailing terms, risks, and responsibilities transparently. Bring your advisor. Bring your family. Bring your toughest questions. That is precisely the kind of stewardship this platform seeks.

The Invitation, Reiterated

You have earned this money, and the right to it, that my former friends and family members helped lay the groundwork for you to earn. The prevailing wisdom is correct: it should be put to work, not merely spent. Conventional investments often generate returns at the expense of communities. I am offering a different path, a fair, capped return anchored in tangible assets and designed to leave enduring value where people live.

Should you, your advisor, or your family wish to learn more as formal opportunities arise, a genuine avenue for engagement will be available.

Green is how we live.

In health,

Geoff Barrett

Founder, Seven Years of Change

Seven Years of Change  ·  sevenyearsofchange.org  ·  connect@sevenyearsofchange.org