Since the founding of TMF in 1962 (then known as Dollars for Scholars), our tuition awards have functioned as interest-free loans. Every recipient signs documentation agreeing to fully repay their awards in order to help current and future TMF recipients. Thank you for taking this obligation seriously!
We offered PayPal for over two years, but found that not enough past recipients used it to justify the expense (even for charitable foundations, PayPal takes a percentage of each transaction). Though we may go back to an online repayment system at some point, for the time being, we don’t currently offer one. Instead, we urge you to use your financial institution’s monthly auto-pay system. This allows you to “set it and forget it” and ensures that your TMF repayments will be made reliably every single month. Every bank is different, but generally speaking, here’s how to ask your bank to take care of this:
1) Tell your bank that no routing number is necessary.
2) Ask your bank to put your name in the memo line of the checks it sends (your name is also your TMF account name). If your name has changed via marriage, etc., be sure to let us know so that your repayments are accurately credited to your account.
3) Your bank can make these monthly repayment checks payable to “Tuition Mission” and mail them to Post Office Box 458, East Liverpool, OH 43920.
Owe more than $5,000? TMF requires a MINIMUM of 0.5% monthly repayments (rounded up to the nearest zero or five). Owe $5,000 or less? TMF requires a MINIMUM of $40/month or one percent (1.0%), whichever is higher. So for instance:
You owe $2,900 — your monthly repayment should be a minimum of 1% or $40/month, whichever is higher.
You owe $16,500 — your monthly repayment should be a minimum of 0.5%, or $85/month.
Your repayments are vital in helping current and future recipients. The population of the tri-state area has shrunk by more than half in the last fifty years or so. This means that more than half the funding we award each year comes from alumni repayments.
TMF views repayments as charitable donations. Consult your tax advisor for details.