Higher Education Donor Naming Rights Program 2025-2026
Situation and Challenge
Mental health has been destigmatized in recent years, leading to an increase in those who seek care. With this rising demand, there’s now an enormous challenge in providing enough care to those who need it. This is especially true for athletes, who are more likely to need care than the average person in an era of social media exposure, increased pressure to perform and win, and unprecedented influence of money in sports. This is no different for student-athletes at colleges and universities in the wake of NIL and the House v. NCAA settlement.
The Onrise Solution: A Comprehensive, Tailored Care Model
Onrise was founded by a career psychiatrist who saw firsthand the need to make athlete mental health more affordable, accessible and relatable. She applied deep experience in telehealth to recreate proven systems of care, tailored for today’s athletes. Onrise now offers services to more than 30,000 athletes at the professional, collegiate and elite youth levels. Onrise’s virtual services are all HIPAA compliant: 1:1 psychiatric and crisis care, licensed therapy, and support from trusted Peer Support Specialists, retired college and pro athletes who are trained, clinically supervised and all Mental Health First Aid Certified. This model allows student-athletes at schools to access the right type of care for their specific needs during off-hours, weekends, holidays, and the off-season.
Each partnership is tailored to our clients’ needs and built to complement and supplement their existing services and resources. Additional options include crisis care, nutrition and sports performance.
Innovative Donor Program
Providing sufficient care for collegiate student-athletes is particularly challenging given schools’ budgetary pressures and constraints, inconsistent in-house resources at various schools, and limited hours and availability. Given these challenges, Onrise is piloting a program with select schools like Elon to generate interest and support from donors who want to pioneer a new approach to student-athlete mental health.
Creating Legacy Impact
Passionate donors will be invited to create new programs at select schools to ensure all student-athletes have immediate and full access to a range of services year-round through Onrise. Donors will get exclusive naming rights similar to those for select scholarships - e.g. "The Edwards Student-Athlete Wellness Program." Onrise and partner schools will update donors on the ongoing impact of their contribution and invite them to help shape how we evolve this care to address student-athletes' changing needs.
Contact:
Walt Barron, Onrise Chief Growth Officer
walt.barron@onrisecare.com
919.308.3277