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By Mary Ellen Eagan ’75
How have 4,200 alumni raised more than $500,000 during
the past 10 years to support scholarships and summer fellowships
for Holy Cross students without ever writing a check?
By utilizing the Holy Cross General Alumni Association
Mastercard program. Each gift, airline ticket or article of clothing purchased
with this credit card helps to fund service projects supported by the GAA.
Under the card program–which is sponsored by MBNA,
the leading issuer of affinity credit cards–the
GAA earns a fee for each new card issued, as well as a
separate fee for each purchase made using the card. The
revenues generated for the GAA are at no cost to the cardholder.
The GAA has sponsored a credit card since 1988, when
Steve O’Connor ’73, Barry McDonough ’54
and Rick Peirce ’67 launched the program with the
help of Pat McCarthy ’63, director of alumni relations,
and Dick Delfino ’60. In those early days, the group
established the goal of raising $10,000 to support GAA
programs. During the 2003-04 academic year, use of the
GAA Mastercard generated $90,000 for the GAA, a remarkable
ninefold increase.
Helping others
The programs that the GAA Mastercard support include
scholarships, summer internships and the Appalachian Service
Program. At the GAA’s October meeting, the association
awarded scholarships totaling more than $60,000 to alumni
children who are now students at Holy Cross.
In addition, the GAA subsidized the salaries of Holy
Cross students who worked as interns at 15 nonprofit organizations
this summer. One Holy Cross student worked on the StoryMobile
project for ReadBoston, while another served children
and adults with disabilities at Rhode Island ’s
Sargent Rehabilitation Center . The GAA’s support
of the interns’ salaries allowed these nonprofits
to expand their services without adding expenses.
“With the additional resources that the credit
card program provides,” says O’Connor, “the
GAA can help fill unmet needs with seed money to develop
programs that will give students a positive experience
at Holy Cross.”
A national partner
MBNA America Bank, N.A., the GAA’s partner in
this endeavor, has agreements with more than 5,100 organizations
across the country to issue credit cards. In addition
to Holy Cross, Columbia , Dartmouth , Georgetown and the
University of Michigan are just a few of the colleges
and universities that participate in MBNA card programs.
Headquartered in Wilmington , Del. , MBNA is listed
on the New York Stock Exchange. It has sponsored the Holy
Cross credit card since 1992 and now contributes $15,000
to the GAA scholarship fund on an annual basis.
MBNA offers Holy Cross alumni a choice of cards and
features. For example, alumni can apply for either a Platinum
Plus ® or Preferred MasterCard® credit
card. MBNA has a card with a fixed interest rate and one
with a variable interest rate; various features can be
added to certain cards, including cash back and travel
points. MBNA has the sole responsibility for all credit
decisions.
Mike Shanahan ’78, GAA treasurer, oversees the
credit card program’s financial results. Although
use of the card benefits the GAA, he pointed out that
the organization reaps no benefits if an individual decides
to carry a balance forwarded from billing period to billing
period and incurs an interest charge. “Cardholders’ interest
payments don’t help the GAA,” he says.
A familiar view
Barry McDonough selected the view of O’Kane from
Dinand Library that appears on the card. He noted—with
a bit of pleasure in his successful design―that
presenting the card can be a conversation starter. “Often
a young waiter will pick up the card and say, ‘Holy
Cross? My uncle went to Holy Cross,’ or ‘My
sister goes there,’ or better still, ‘I want
to apply to Holy Cross.’”
Finding new friends in a new place is an unexpected
benefit of the Holy Cross credit card program, but the
added funding it brings to the GAA is certainly another―and
more important―one.
To find out more about the card, contact MBNA at
1- 800-932-2775 ―or, on the Holy Cross Web site,
select “Alumni and Friends”; “General
Alumni Association”; and then “Services.” The
Web address is: http://www.holycross.edu/departments/alumnidev/alumni/alu_ser.html
Mary Ellen Eagan ’75 is a member
of the GAA’s
Communications Committee.
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