In the wake of a series of sex abuse revelations, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has agreed to provide an annual budget to help support its council of volunteers who serve as the main advocates for athletes’ rights and concerns.

Under the deal announced last week, the Colorado Springs-based USOPC will allocate $525,000 this year, with a 2% annual increase through 2024, to pay for “professional, independent operational support” for the Athletes’ Advisory Council of elected representatives, many of whom work full time, or are actively training and competing, and receive no pay for their work on the council.

The funding represents a roughly three-fold increase in USOPC’s previous support of the volunteer group, whose members, as per congressional mandate, must make up 20% of its board of directors and any “committees and entities of the corporation.”

Olympic boss Sarah Hirshland said the agreement is another “important step” in the organization’s moves to overhaul the way it does business and ensure athletes a place “at the heart of everything we do,” after the crimes of Team USA doctor Larry Nassar exposed deep cracks in multiple levels of the iconic brand.

“The input and feedback of the athlete community must guide our organizational decision-making and these resources will enhance that communication process,” Hirshland said in a prepared statement. “A professional staff to assist the elected, volunteer leadership of the AAC will enable athletes to more effectively advise our team on an increasingly diverse and complex set of issues and policies and ensure that athletes’ needs and voices are well-represented.”

The AAC is made up of representatives from each Olympic and Pan American sport and the Paralympic Sport Organizations, plus six at-large members. Members must have represented the U.S. in major international competitions within the last decade and serve four-year terms with duties that extend to attendance at a series of national meetings, usually weekend commitments with expenses reimbursed.

The USOPC says the new agreement opens up access to its resources, and while the money comes with no strings, it’s expected to help cover members’ travel, projects, and staffing, specifically the creation of an executive director position.

AAC Chairman Han Xiao said the move to boost support and “professionalize” the council – things his group has long lobbied for – is a potentially historic one that signals the organization is committed to change.

“Today’s elite athletes are facing more numerous and complex issues than ever before, which means that the AAC must evolve and adapt to provide robust voice and representation for those athletes moving forward,” Xiao said in the release. “This agreement is an important step toward that goal.”

Not every athlete advocate is wildly cheering the move, though.

Olympic swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar is a member of “Team Integrity,” a group of 170 former Olympians and Paralympians, coaches and elite athletes lobbying for a near complete tear-down and rebuild of the Olympic committee, starting with fundamental changes to the congressional act that founded it in 1978.

While the USOPC’s deal to boost funding for the advisory council is a positive step, the investment just doesn’t add up to the kind of commitment that’s needed to create a true “athlete first” culture, said Hogshead-Makar, who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Games.

After factoring in other expenses, such as travel, she worries the remaining annual funds won’t be enough to hire a leader whose voice can compete at the highest levels of an organization that, according to IRS tax filings, brought in $336 million in revenue in 2016.

“That $525,000 is a huge increase (in the previous amount of AAC funding) … but think of the whole budget,” said Hogshead-Makar, a lawyer and founder of Champion Women, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equality in sports. “In no way will the person that they hire be at the same professional standing as the other executives at the USOPC. It’s not even in the same standing as the severance pay.”

Hirshland took over the top job in 2018 for an annual salary of $600,000, with the potential of earning a 50% bonus.

Former chief exec Scott Blackmun, who was widely criticized for his inaction during the sexual assault crisis, received $2.4 million in severance after resigning for health reasons in 2018.