--- title: This College Has An Odd Way Of Helping Alumni With Student Loan Debt description: Northeastern University promises that if alumni make a donation, they'll be entered into a pool to have some student loan debt repaid. authors: - name: Kerry Close url: https://money.com/author/kerry-close/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 182 covers: - Loans - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/kerryclose former_staff: true published: '2016-06-02T18:37:21.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:08:59.000Z' section: Loans tags: - Northeastern University - pubdesk - student loan debt - Student Loans word_count: 241 canonical: https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We may earn a fee if you click on the links below. Compensation does not determine ranking. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Northeastern University has started a text campaign promising to enter alumni who donate into a raffle for the chance to get student loan debt repaid.](https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-94640624.jpg) *Northeastern University has started a text campaign promising to enter alumni who donate into a raffle for the chance to get student loan debt repaid.* Would you pay to enter a raffle to have some of your student loan debt forgiven? That's the question Northeastern University is asking alumni who still owe the school money for their undergraduate education, [*Gawker* reported](http://gawker.com/northeastern-university-offers-alums-a-fucked-up-studen-1780080341?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow). The private Boston-based college, where tuition runs about $60,000, has started a text-messaging campaign asking alumni to give back to their alma mater. The text tells the former students that if they donate to Northeastern, they'll be entered into a raffle to have $1,000 worth of student loan debt forgiven. While there’s a chance a small donation could help bring down your loan balance, most likely you'll win nothing and be further from your goal of paying off your debt. A spokesman for Northeastern confirmed the campaign in an email to Gawker. "The campaign is intended to fulfill two of the donor's goals: to raise support for the university and to lend a hand to alumni with student loans–an issue that Northeastern University takes seriously," he said. Northeastern's campaign is likely hitting a poignant note for many of its alumni. Nationwide, the average graduate of the class of 2016 has [$37,172 in student loan debt](https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics-2016/), up 6% from last year. ***Read More*: [16 Years Ago, I Made a Bad College Decision. I'm Still Paying for It](https://money.com/i-regret-my-student-debt-college-decision-day/)** Northeastern's campaign is being run through MobileCause, a tech company that advertises its ability to "give your supporters the power to donate from anywhere, right on a mobile device." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Loans", "item": "https://money.com/loans/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Student Loans", "item": "https://money.com/student-loans-category/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This College Has An Odd Way Of Helping Alumni With Student Loan Debt" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/", "name": "This College Has An Odd Way Of Helping Alumni With Student Loan Debt", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-02T18:37:21.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:08:59.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This College Has An Odd Way Of Helping Alumni With Student Loan Debt", "articleSection": "Loans", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-94640624.jpg", "width": 3499, "height": 2342, "caption": "Northeastern-loan-text" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kerry Close", "url": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/kerryclose" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-02T18:37:21.000Z", "description": "Northeastern University promises that if alumni make a donation, they'll be entered into a pool to have some student loan debt repaid.", "abstract": "Northeastern University promises that if alumni make a donation, they'll be entered into a pool to have some student loan debt repaid.", "@id": "https://money.com/northeastern-loan-repay-text/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:08:59.000Z", "wordCount": 241, "keywords": [ "Northeastern University", "pubdesk", "student loan debt", "Student Loans" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Loan", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loan" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Student loans in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loans_in_the_United_States" ] } ] } ] } ```