A redemption destination your alumni cardholders will actually use.
Alumni cardholders who redeem rewards are your most engaged, most retained account holders. Wishbone gives them a redemption tied to identity and community — inside the app they already use.
- $33B+
- Unredeemed rewards on U.S. bank balance sheets
- No new card
- No new app, no new login for the cardholder
- Not in the funds flow
- Orchestration only — simpler compliance review
- Standard APIs
- Drops into your existing redemption rails
Moneywise / industry estimate
Wishbone is infrastructure, not a product your cardholders have to adopt.
Co-branded affinity cards keep failing — they ask fans to apply, get approved, and switch their spending. Almost no one does. Round-up contribution apps add install-and-link friction and hand cardholder data to third parties. Wishbone avoids both: it embeds in the rewards experience cardholders already use.
No new card
Nothing to apply for, get approved for, or switch spending to. It works with the rewards your cardholders already earn.
No new app
No separate install, no third-party data broker. The giving channel lives where redemption already happens.
No new login
Wishbone links a cardholder's existing bank token to their existing ticketing patron account via secure OAuth.
It lives inside the experience you already own.
No new card. No new app. No new login. Wishbone appears as a redemption option inside your existing cardholder interface — and routes the gift the moment a cardholder taps it.
One integration. Wishbone speaks both languages.
The bank never talks to the ticketing platform. The ticketing platform never talks to the bank. Wishbone is the only entity that connects them — and it stays out of the funds flow.
- 1
Your app
Cardholder taps redeem; you submit a contribution request to Wishbone.
- 2
Wishbone
Validates, records, and routes the request — never touching the funds flow.
- 3
Ticketing platform
Paciolan / Learfield or Ticketmaster posts the gift and credits priority points.
- 4
Signed webhook
An HMAC-SHA256 signed confirmation fires back to you. Loop closed.
A lever that moves the numbers that matter.
Cardholder engagement and spend lift
Cardholders who redeem rewards are your most active, most retained account holders. A redemption tied to identity and community drives higher activation rates than generic cashback — and correlates with gameday spend: tickets, travel, dining, merchandise.
Build loyalty with the alumni segment
Alumni cardholders who give through Wishbone deepen their relationship with their bank and their school simultaneously. Zero additional product cost — it deepens an existing relationship.
Reduce idle points liability
Move unredeemed balances off your books through a high-affinity, opt-in redemption channel that cardholders actually want to use. Liability reduction is the second-order benefit of engagement that works.
No new card product or infrastructure
Integrates via standard API into your existing redemption flow. No new issuing, no new rewards program architecture required.
A majority of fans who give are season-ticket holders. Redemption engagement through Wishbone correlates with the highest-value cardholder behaviors — gameday purchases across tickets, travel, dining, and merchandise. This isn't a charitable program competing with spend; it's a retention mechanism for your most valuable accounts.
Designed to clear procurement and risk review.
Wishbone made a deliberate architectural choice to stay out of the funds flow — reducing licensing friction and simplifying bank compliance reviews.
Not in the funds flow
Wishbone orchestrates the record, not the money — keeping it outside money-transmission licensing.
No PCI data stored
The platform avoids storing PCI data and retains only the minimum PII needed for school-side reconciliation.
Encrypted end to end
All data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with per-school encrypted platform configs.
Signed, auditable webhooks
Delivery uses HMAC-SHA256 signing with exponential backoff, dead-letter handling, and per-attempt logging.
Built for procurement review.
Everything your security and compliance team needs is documented in one place.
Standardized SDK templates for the loyalty platforms you already run.
On the school side, Wishbone connects through Paciolan / Learfield and Ticketmaster, which together cover roughly 80% of Division I programs.
See the redemption API in action.
A contribution request from issuer to Wishbone — simulated client-side.
{
"idempotency_key": "idem_7f3a9c",
"issuer_id": "iss_lowndes_bank",
"cardholder_token": "ch_tok_94k2...",
"school_id": "sch_sidney_tech",
"points_redeemed": 5000,
"cash_value": {
"amount": 5000,
"currency": "USD",
"unit": "cents"
}
}Simulated responses for illustration. Sandbox access available to partners.
What issuers ask us first.
How does this integrate into our loyalty platform?
Wishbone is designed to drop into existing redemption rails and digital experiences via standard APIs. It appears as a redemption option inside your current interface — no new app, no new login for the cardholder.
Who is in the funds flow?
The funds flow is maintained between the issuer and the athletic foundation via direct disbursement. Wishbone acts as an orchestration layer between the issuer point system and the athletic foundation's ecosystem. We are not in the funds flow.
What are the commercial terms?
Commercial terms are scoped during partnership discussions — contact us.
Apply to the launch cohort.
We're working with a focused group of launch partners. Tell us about your program and we'll be in touch.
No commitment required. We'll follow up within 48 hours.
Are you an alumni or fan? Join the waitlist →
Prefer to talk first? Book a 20-minute intro call →