What's New Peer Models Are Evolving To Help Cover The Cost of College?

Here are some new developments which show how the peer financing market continues to morph over time with one provider, People Capital, providing their origination platform to facilitate traditional private loans while several other companies move more towards more of a donor model: 

• People Capital partners with Access To Money (ATM) to provide private student loans solution.  People Capital will provide the origination platform and their credit analysis tool, the Human Capital Score (from People Capital's blog) and ATM will provide their business development skills:

"Last month, we signed a “private label” service agreement where People Capital will provide our technology platform to ATM to originate and service the private student loans transacted through their services. Through this relationship, we will provide our loan origination technology to ATM, who will use it to offer new private loan options to credit unions and community banks with a focus on college students. Together, this partnership brings together both the students AND the committed funding partners.  People Capital will focus on the technology and operations while ATM will leverage their business development and relationship skills. The platform will go live very shortly."

• AcademicInvest.com launched a website last week focused on peer investing in Canadian college students.  So what is peer investing (from AcademicInvest website)?:

"Peer finance, whether it's used for education costs, business development, or debt consolidation, offers an emerging alternative to conventional forms of financing. It operates by introducing private investors to those who require funding.

Within the last decade or so, peer finance has begun to emerge as a legitimate alternative to institutional finance because of the many people who are supporting it, both as lenders and as borrowers. This growth is also a direct product of recent turmoil in the financial industry and various financial markets.

The exchange of capital can operate on more personal terms through peer financing vehicles. Investors can allow personal beliefs as well as risk taking to become part of the decision making process.

Forms of loan repayment are also part of the alternative nature of peer finance; it is bound only by the limits of practical creativity and an agreement between two parties. Some of the methods of repayment can include: a percentage of a student's salary upon graduation; an asset offered as collateral; equity in a business; work terms; and even traditional loan terms with agreed upon structuring."

• I have from a good source that GreenNote will soon be announcing the addition of a complete donation-based fundraising solution to their network.   These new donor tools will allow students to attract donations, grants, gifts and low-cost loans. 
  
  
• Meanwhile, Lilyslist.com recently launched a "student loan gift registry:"

"Register with Lily's List and get a personal profile page where family, friends, alumni and even businesses can help you pay down your debt - one birthday, holiday, or graduation gift at a time!

Membership is only $15 per year and includes valuable tools, support and shared revenue as site advertising grows."

• As of this evening, 23 members have signed up since the site launched one and half months ago.

• UniThrive, which seeks to match alumni with students to help lower the cost of education, (which first appeared in the blog last June) had this note on their website:

UniThrive.org is in a pilot beta

Thanks for visiting UniThrive! After launching a successful pilot in 2009, we are currently working on expanding to more schools in a way that makes sense for us, but more importantly, for the students we hope to help. At this time we are not accepting any new student loan requests, though if you are a student or alumnus of Harvard you may still register.