As Chief Marketing Officer at Upromise from 2002 - 2004, I had the good fortune to meet Michael Bronner, who founded the company, and to work with Senator Bill Bradley, who sat on the Board of Directors.  Both shared my passionate belief in the right to a college education and saw the impending shortfall in funding coming a mile away.

Bronner founded Upromise with the mission to make a college education more accessible and affordable. Senator Bradley has a long track record of support for higher education and continues to put the issue at the top of his agenda, as he did once more in his recent Salt Lake City address. The two were a perfect match and an inspiration to work with. They both care deeply about preventing young people from being forced to choose between work and education.

The Upromise business model is brilliantly simple:  Every time a member buys something from a participating company, that sponsor company contributes part of the purchase price to the member’s tax-deferred college savings account.  Not only is Michael Bronner an impressive brand loyalty pioneer, he’s fundamentally changed the way families save for college.

I now work for Prosper, but I’m a still a member of Upromise and look forward to being prepared when I send my son to college. I also have a Citi MasterCard that puts dollars into our college savings account every time I use it.  And use it I do!  Lest I forget, my son is sure to remind me-he wants to go to college as much as we want him to.

Prosper is also committed to helping people get loans to assist them in their endeavors.  Founded by Chris Larsen and John Witchel, both believe in the philosophy of letting people help people by being able to determine how and where their money gets allocated and at what price.  Prosper is based on an auction-style system which allows a person with funds to commit to select borrowers that are suitable for their degree of risk tolerance.  It’s important to me that we, the people, are stepping up to help those students put education first when banks are closing their door to funding.

American families today are more worried about being able to send their kids to college than they are about their own retirement. Three cheers for innovative tools for college funding like personal loans for students on Prosper and college savings networks like Upromise. Three cheers for people like Michael Bronner and Senator Bill Bradley, and Chris Larsen and John Witchel, who bring them to fruition.

–

Catherine Muriel is the Chief Marketing Officer of Prosper.