This is something that I was thinking about....
We keep on trying to push people to "donate" to the NIL foundation, I know we have all done that here, but there are plenty fans that have never heard of the foundation plus alot of fans who just don't believe they should donate to the bank account of kids. Then you have literally hundreds of thousands in the area that are not really fans but will occasionally go to a game if given the opportunity or will follow a little only if we are good.
So why don't we talk to a card, hobby, or memorabilia shop around here, hell there's a popular one very close to me that I can ask, and set up an autograph signing session. Get 5 RU players, say Wimsatt, Brown, Lewis, Powell, and say Moses Walker, $25 for an autograph, $100 for all 5 plus a free photo with all 5 pictures on it to get signed. Advertise it as autographs of future NFL players or something like that.
-As I said we would need a shop that would do it, many of them do a great job at advertising autograph sessions on their own
-We would need to find an RU alum that would print like 5000 of these photos either cheap or free
-You guys would have to do your part by getting the word out to everyone, not just board members but talk to the person next to you at the tailgate or stands, or your friends who are not RU fans but like to collect memorabilia
-Find a way to talk to the donors who have not wanted to contribute to the fund but would pay for something knowing that the athletes worked for and is truly Name, Image and Likeness, not just cutting a check for nothing. Zap (sorry for calling you out) is an example of this. But I am thinking we can get a couple bigger donors who would pay for like a thousand signed photos under this premise.
There are many memorabilia places will have the person sign 5000+ photos, that is not uncommon. I know there is some overhead like the venue but do the math. 5000 x $100 is $500,000 for one long day of work.