Partnership Programs for Institutions
Your students have been taking private loans. They have not been taught what to do if things go wrong.
GradMerge works with financial aid offices, financial wellness programs, bursars, and alumni associations on the part of student debt that federal programs do not touch: private student loans in delinquency, default, or charge-off. Three programs, run separately or together, at no cost to your institution or your graduates.
Start with your office
Each program answers a different question, and each one belongs to a different desk on campus. Find yours.
Alumni Relations and Advancement
You have graduates who stopped opening their mail, and a list you are careful with.
Alumni support programBursar, Student Accounts, and Finance
You hold institutional or self-funded loan paper that is heading to write-off.
Portfolio recovery programFinancial Aid and Financial Wellness
You run a counseling and literacy program and you need private-loan content for it.
Education sessionsWhy private loans need their own answer
Almost every student debt resource in America is written about federal loans: income-driven repayment, forgiveness, consolidation, rehabilitation. None of it applies to a private loan. When a graduate with a private loan falls behind, the federal safety net your exit counseling describes simply is not there, and the advice they find online does not fit their situation. That gap is where people give up.
~$140B
outstanding private student loan debt (estimate)1
~2.3M
borrowers in default or charge-off (estimate)2
96.5%
of undergraduate private loans made in 2025-26 carried a cosigner3
That last number is the one most institutions underestimate. When a graduate defaults on a private loan, a parent or family member is usually on the note too, which means one default reaches two households and often two credit reports.
GradMerge is a marketing service, not a lender. We connect borrowers who may qualify to a licensed lending partner, and we never charge a borrower a fee.
Program one
Alumni support: a real option for graduates in default
Your association is one of the few institutions a struggling graduate still trusts. This program lets you use that trust to hand them something useful, without your staff giving financial advice, without a cost to your members, and without your alumni data ever leaving your systems.
- You send one approved email per quarter from your own system, using a tracking link we provide. We draft it, you edit and approve it.
- Alumni check their options privately on a co-branded page. There is no cost, no obligation, and no phone number they have to call to find out.
- Those who may qualify are connected to our licensed lending partner, Alt Lending, LLC (NMLS #2571325), to see whether refinancing into a low fixed rate loan is possible for them.
- Your association could earn a royalty on each loan that funds, tracked automatically to your link.
What GradMerge provides, at no cost
- A co-branded landing page carrying your branding
- Written email templates, flyers, and FAQ collateral
- Tracking links and QR codes for print and events
- Compliance review of every message before it sends
- A dedicated contact and one business day support
What your association does
- Send at least one approved message per quarter
- Use only materials that have been through review
- Honor any alumni opt-out request
- Keep your alumni data in your own systems
Who it helps: alumni with one or more private student loans in default or charge-off who are working and intend to repay. Federal loans are not eligible. Approval, terms, and available states rest entirely with the licensed lender.
Program two
Portfolio recovery: for schools that hold their own loan paper
Institutions that self-fund student loans, whether through an institutional lending program, emergency loans, tuition receivables, or legacy campus notes, end up carrying a slice of accounts that will never perform. The usual path is a collection agency that recovers slowly, attaches your institution's name to the process, and still ends with most of the balance written off. GradMerge brings a different option: purchasing partners who pay for eligible defaulted paper up front.
- You define the portfolio. The eligible non-federal accounts you are preparing to write off, described at a summary level first.
- We arrange evaluation and pricing. GradMerge facilitates the purchase in partnership with licensed entities, and your finance office and counsel review every term before anything is signed.
- Borrowers are offered a path, not a pursuit. Those who may qualify are connected to a refinance option through our licensed lending partner, so recovery for the institution does not come at the cost of your relationship with a former student.
Traditional collections
- A slow trickle of recovery over years
- Your institution's name attached to the tactics used
- Former students pursued, alumni goodwill spent
- Most of the balance still written down to nothing
Portfolio purchase
- An agreed lump sum at closing rather than a trickle
- No ongoing collection effort on your staff
- Borrowers offered a genuine refinance option
- Reputation and alumni relationships protected
What is eligible: non-federal institutional and private student loan accounts your institution holds. Federal loans, including Perkins, are not eligible. Final scope and pricing are set in a definitive agreement. Nothing on this page is an offer to purchase any specific portfolio.
Program three
Education sessions, online and on campus
Exit counseling covers what federal regulations require it to cover. It does not explain what a charge-off is, what a cosigner has actually signed, or what a graduate should do the week a private loan goes 90 days past due. We deliver that content for you, as live webinars, on-demand modules, or in-person seminars, built by someone who worked in a financial aid office.
These are teaching sessions, not sales presentations. Your office reviews the material before it runs, GradMerge is disclosed at the open and the close, no products are pitched from the podium, and we do not collect attendee contact information unless your office specifically asks us to.
Session catalog
| Session | Format | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Life after graduation: how private repayment actually works | Webinar, on demand, or on campus, 45 to 60 min | Seniors and graduate students in their final terms |
| Behind on a private loan: delinquency, default, and charge-off in plain English | Webinar or on demand, 30 min | Alumni and current borrowers |
| Rebuilding credit after a rough stretch | Webinar or on demand, 45 min | Alumni and recent graduates |
| Spotting student debt relief scams | Webinar or on demand, 30 min | All audiences, including families |
| Staff briefing: what happens to your alumni after a private default | Webinar, on demand, or on campus, 60 min | Aid, wellness, bursar, and alumni relations staff |
What every session covers, and what it never does
We teach
- How private loans differ from federal loans, specifically
- What the words on a collection letter actually mean
- What options exist, including negotiating, refinancing, and defending a claim
- How cosigner liability works and how to talk about it as a family
- How to rebuild credit after a delinquency
- How to recognize a debt relief scam
We do not
- Give legal advice. Legal questions go to an attorney, and we say so
- Quote rates, payments, or savings figures
- Promise that anyone will qualify for anything
- Use scare tactics about garnishment or arrest
- Blur federal relief programs into private loan advice
- Collect attendee data unless your office requests it
Handouts: every session comes with a plain-English leaflet your office can keep and reuse, whether or not GradMerge is in the room again. Ask for the cosigner sheet and the private loan repayment checklist.
The terms at a glance
How we stay inside the lines
Your institution is accountable for anything that carries its name, so here is the compliance posture in plain terms. GradMerge is a marketing service and never a lender, and we never imply that we approve, price, or decide anything. Loans are originated by Alt Lending, LLC (NMLS #2571325), and approval, terms, and state availability rest with the lender. We say "may qualify," never "will qualify." We do not publish rate, payment, or savings figures. We do not buy or scrape borrower lists, and we do not run outreach that implies knowledge of a person's debt status. Outreach follows CAN-SPAM, including a working unsubscribe and a permanent suppression list. Where a question is legal rather than financial, we refer people to a consumer attorney rather than answering it.
Questions institutions ask first
Does any of this cost the institution money?
No. There is no fee to participate in any of the three programs, no cost for education sessions, and no cost to students, alumni, or their families. The alumni program may pay associations a royalty on funded loans; the other two carry no money in either direction beyond a portfolio purchase price where one applies.
Do we have to give you our alumni or student list?
No, and we would decline it. You send messages from your own system to your own list. We never receive, store, or process your constituent data.
Can we run only the education sessions?
Yes. Many schools start there. The sessions are useful on their own and carry no obligation to enter a referral or portfolio relationship.
Is this help with federal student loans?
No. This is specifically about private, non-federal student loans, which do not qualify for income-driven repayment, federal forgiveness, or federal rehabilitation. If a graduate's problem is a federal loan, we will tell them to go to their federal servicer and StudentAid.gov instead.
What do you tell a borrower who says they are being sued?
That a lawsuit is a legal matter and they should speak with a consumer attorney, promptly, and that they should not ignore court paperwork. We maintain an attorney referral network for exactly this, and we do not offer an opinion on their case.
What about bankruptcy?
We describe it accurately and leave the judgment to counsel. Private student loans are far harder to discharge in bankruptcy than ordinary debt and often survive a filing, which is why we treat it as a question for a bankruptcy attorney rather than a strategy we recommend.
Where do we send a graduate who reaches out to us today?
Send them to gradmerge.com/get-started. There is no cost, no obligation, and no requirement that your institution be a partner for a borrower to use it.
Let's find the right starting point
A 20 minute conversation is usually enough to tell whether any of this fits your campus.
Sources
- Enterval Analytics data on total outstanding private student loan debt, reported by The Motley Fool, "Student Loan Debt 2026: Statistics, Forgiveness, and Outlook." fool.com
- GradMerge internal estimate, derived from the delinquency and gross charge-off rates published in the Enterval Analytics Private Student Loan Report, 26th edition (July 15, 2026). Presented as an approximation, not a measured count. Enterval report release
- LendingTree, "U.S. Student Loan Debt Statistics," citing Enterval cosigner data for academic year 2025-26 (96.5% of undergraduate and 73.1% of graduate private loans). lendingtree.com