The Difference Is in the Payment: Building Infrastructure That Moves With People

When people think about public benefits, they usually think about eligibility. Or paperwork. Or program rules.
Rarely do they think about payments — and yet, that’s often where everything breaks down.

The difference between stability and crisis isn’t just whether someone qualifies — it’s when and how the support reaches them.

At Scholar Fund, we believe payments are more than a final step.
They’re the engine. The infrastructure. The trust mechanism.

We’ve designed a system that treats payments as the difference-maker — not an afterthought, but a core part of how aid is delivered with speed, clarity, and care.

The Reality: Payment Systems Were Never Built for This

Most benefit systems were designed before digital wallets, prepaid cards, or mobile apps even existed. They were optimized for accounting, not access.

That means:

• Recipients without a bank account are left behind

• Checks bounce or take weeks to arrive

• One payment method = one point of failure

• Program staff spend days troubleshooting disbursements

When the goal is urgency, equity, or trust, these old systems can’t keep up.

We don’t blame the people managing these programs. We’ve worked alongside them.
We’ve watched them patch systems together with spreadsheets and goodwill.

The problem isn’t the people. It’s the plumbing.

What We’ve Built: Payments as Infrastructure

At Scholar Fund, we’ve designed an end-to-end payment infrastructure that puts flexibility, scale, and accountability at its core.

Here’s what makes our approach different:

💳 Multi-Rail Delivery That Meets People Where They Are

We don’t ask recipients to change how they live to receive help.
We meet them where they already are — with choice and dignity.

We support:

• Direct deposit

• Paper checks

• Push-to-card (including instant disbursement)

• Reloadable gift cards (ATM-enabled)

• PayPal

• Digital gift cards for urgent spend needs

This flexibility increases uptake, reduces bounce-backs, and gets money moving fast.

📊 Real-Time Payment Visibility

We believe you can’t manage what you can’t see.
Our system provides:

• Real-time dashboards showing payment status across programs

• Confirmation of receipt or failure

• Transparent reconciliation tools

• Alerts for stalled or returned payments with built in support teams

When program staff know where money is — and where it isn’t — they can act fast and prevent harm.

🔁 A Unified Ledger Built for Impact

Every payment is tracked from request to authorization to settlement. That means:

• No more manual reconciliation

• Clear audit trails

• Full transparency for funders and compliance teams

• Easier impact reporting — tied to dollars actually delivered

This is the foundation that makes scale possible.

What Scalable Payments Look Like in Action

3,000+ people applied to one of our national AmeriCorps support programs — in just just a few days. We must have the infrastructure to act as funds arrive.

In another program, we delivered $40M in 40 days — across multiple payment types — across 30+ counties and over 100 cities to 38,000 individuals.

To date, we’ve moved nearly $300M in aid across 12+ states.
Every dollar visible. Every payment trackable. Every disbursement designed for dignity.

Why This Matters

When someone receives support quickly, clearly, and in a format that works for them — trust is restored.

It’s not just about compliance. It’s about confidence.

We’re not here to add one more vendor to the pile.
We’re here to say: this part can be better.

Because payments aren’t the end of the program.
They’re the part that matters most.

If You’re Asking...

• “How can we move faster without sacrificing oversight?”

• “What if we could offer multiple payment formats without doubling the work?”

• “Can we finally stop emailing spreadsheets to our finance teams?”

The answer is: yes.

We’re ready to show you what payment infrastructure for public programs can really look like.

No One-Size-Fits-All — And That’s the Point.

At Scholar Fund, we’ve seen firsthand how different every community's needs are — and how crucial it is to build payment infrastructure that can meet them all. We’ve delivered:

• 🏠 Rent support for thousands of families navigating housing insecurity

• 💊 Prescription and medical stipends to cover urgent health needs

• 👶 Child care assistance to help parents get back to work

• 💡 Utility relief to keep lights on and water running

• 💵 Unrestricted cash assistance for low-income households

• 🎓 Emergency aid for students facing dropout risk or family emergencies

• 🧓 Elder care and aging-in-place support to help seniors stay safely in their homes

• 🏡 Down payment assistance to unlock the dream of homeownership

• 🌐 Technology access and digital inclusion grants

Some programs served 30 people. Others, 30,000. What united them was a belief that the right payment at the right time can be life-changing.

That’s the difference we’re building toward — one program, one payout, one person at a time.

Let’s Build the Future of Public Delivery

If you want to:

• Launch a scalable benefit program

• Simplify disbursement

• Modernize how your organization shows up in people’s lives

We’d love to connect.

🔗 Explore our platform: unify.scholarfundwa.org
📩 Or reply to this message — I’ll read every word.

Payments can be more than transactions.
They can be trust. Relief. And infrastructure for impact.

Let’s build that together.

—
David Coven
Founder & CEO, Scholar Fund