CardPartner Inc., a New York company that develops affinity card programs for smaller organizations, is now offering such a program for the Nashville charity Soles4Souls Inc.
The charity, which announced the partnership Thursday, oversees international donations of new and used shoes. Wayne Elsey, its founder and chief executive, said in a press release that the affinity card program will "generate additional funds for our organization."
Like CardPartner's other clients, Soles4Souls will receive $50 for every card activated as well as a percentage of the transaction volume per card. Cardholders will receive Visa Inc. platinum cards issued by UMB Financial Corp., which issues cards for all of the affinity programs designed by CardPartner.
CardPartner, a unit of Serverside Group Ltd. of London, officially started operating in June and said it now has 44 official partners. It provides card-customization software to charities and other organizations that are traditionally underserved by large issuers.
Adam Elgar, the president of CardPartner and of Serverside, said in a July interview that the company keeps costs low for all parties by not pre-printing batches of cards and by avoiding traditional direct-mail campaigns. Instead, the affinity groups advertise the cards directly to their members, usually through their Web sites or in their newsletters. "We essentially turned the affinity card model inside out and enabled partners to create their own program," he said.
