The Eye-Watering Amount Olivia Dunne Makes From Social Media

For years, college athletes couldn't earn a dime off their talents — unless you count trophies and medals. The NCAA made sure of that, strictly forbidding them from earning any real cash. But in 2021, the game changed — literally. Young athletes were finally allowed to cash in on their Name, Image, and Likeness (N.I.L.) rights, and gymnast Olivia "Livvy" Dunne wasted no time in doing just that. In fact, the athlete, who shocked fans when she decided to compete in the NCAA for a fifth year, reportedly managed to pull in as much as six figures for a single social media post. Yup, you read that right — six figures for one post.

The moment N.I.L. was implemented, brands practically tripped over themselves trying to get Dunne to sign with them. She became the first college athlete to land a deal with WME Sports, the same agency that handles sports heavyweights like Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic. Not stopping there, the Louisiana State University gymnast bagged a six-figure deal with athleisure brand Vuori and added more big names to her roster, including L'Oréal, Forever 21, Nautica, Spotify, and YouTube. The reason? Her social media following, of course. As of writing, she has a collective 14.4 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter).

While her face might be plastered across various campaigns, her real cash cow is sponsored content on social media. Her usual rate? Around $125,000 per post — but she's been known to charge up to half a million for a single post across her platforms. Not bad for a day's work!

It's no secret that Olivia Dunne is one of the most popular collegiate athletes of her generation, but for a while, she kept quiet about just how much her fame was bringing in. According to Deadline, she was ranked as the second most valuable college athlete influencer, right behind LeBron James' son, Bronny, before he went pro. Meanwhile, On3 puts her at the top of its N.I.L. rankings for female college athletes, slapping a hefty $4 million valuation on her name.

In a 2022 interview with The New York Times, Dunne let it slip that she'd already raked in millions through her N.I.L. deals. "Seven figures," she said. "That is something I'm proud of. Especially since I'm a woman in college sports ... There are no professional leagues for most women's sports after college." A year later, she got a little more candid on the "Full Send" podcast, revealing she was paid over $500,000 for a single sponsored post. "I usually don't ever talk about money, but ... I would say, six figures," she declared. "Yeah, I'm very fortunate ... It's just crazy to me."

But Olivia Dunne isn't planning to just coast on those massive paychecks forever. She's got bigger plans, hinting that her online fame could be the launch pad for her own brand down the line. "After school, I would definitely like to have my own brand," she shared with On3. "Yes, I love working with brands but I would like to have my own thing, my own product one day and I'm not sure exactly what that is."

Make no mistake — just because Olivia Dunne is raking in what seems like easy money from social media doesn't mean she's taking any of it for granted. In her interview with On3, she made it clear that she's careful about the brands she partners with and isn't just in it for a quick payday. "Taking your time to pick your brand deals and to be picky [is the biggest lesson I've learned], there's no problem in saying no to brands if it doesn't feel right to you," she said.

She's also taking social media management seriously, keeping tabs on how her posts perform to see if they're bringing actual value to the brands that have trusted her to promote them. "I've really grown to love looking at the analytics — how things perform and when things don't perform, seeing what went wrong," she told GQ. "I just find joy in that. I think you gotta love it if you're doing it, or else it could be kind of brutal."

This thoughtful approach to her personal brand is likely why she's reportedly worth a whopping $9.5 million. And she's not keeping all that knowledge to herself. To give back to others after social media changed her life, Dunne started the Livvy Fund, which aims to help other female athletes land their own big-brand deals. "I've been fortunate enough to have all these different opportunities with N.I.L. and to have experience because it could be very foreign to other athletes at the start of it," Dunne dished to People. "So, I just wanted to help other women and give them opportunities to learn and have more N.I.L. deals because they deserve it just as much as I do."