$250-Million Fund Started by Nellie Mae

Nellie Mae, one of the country’s largest providers of education loans, has created a foundation that has $250-million in assets.

The Nellie Mae Foundation, located in Braintree, Mass., is expected to give about $10-million a year to a wide array of education programs.

The decision to set up the foundation came after Nellie Mae decided to reorganize and transfer its student-loan activities to a for-profit subsidiary of the foundation. That entity will be named the Nellie Mae Corporation and will have $2.7-billion in assets.

Nellie Mae created the foundation under a 1996 federal law that allowed non-profit student-loan companies to make a one-time transfer of their student-loan assets and liabilities to a for-profit company and then authorized them to use the net value of the loan business for education-related charitable grants.

For more information, contact Sylvia Salas, Director, Nellie Mae Foundation, 50 Braintree Hill Park, Suite 300, Braintree, Mass. 02184; (781) 849-1325, ext. 2429.