In Defense of Animals, a nonprofit, is offering its donors an affinity debit card that runs on Tempo Payments Inc.'s network.
Every time the cards are used to make a purchase, the San Rafael, Calif., animal-rights group gets a cut of the fees. The cards can be used anywhere MasterCard Inc. debit cards are accepted.
(When consumers make purchases, the transactions move initially across MasterCard's debit network to Tempo, which switches them to the automated clearing house system and debits the consumers' bank accounts.)
First Bank and Trust, unit of Fishback Financial Corp. of Brookings, S.D., issues the cards.
Tempo, of San Mateo, Calif., announced their availability Monday.
Last year Tempo introduced a new business model built around affinity debit card programs for special-interest groups, a major shift from its earlier model of encouraging large merchants to offer "decoupled" cards to consumers.
It has also signed up the Breast Cancer Fund and Greenpeace as partners.
