Sea Shepherd, CardPartner Team Up On Program to Fund Anti-Whaling Actions

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. & NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Affinity credit cards do a lot more than they used to, and now they save the whales too.

“CardPartner is nimble, responsive and innovative—qualities that complement Sea Shepherd’s own approach to enforcing international law on the high seas on behalf of marine animals”

Sea Shepherd, the global environmental non-profit known for defending ocean wildlife worldwide with innovative and determined tactics, and CardPartner, a New York-based company that helps non-profits and membership groups set up affinity credit card programs, said today that Sea Shepherd will offer a new, free Visa affinity credit card that will help fund the organization’s critical marine conservation mission.

“CardPartner is nimble, responsive and innovative—qualities that complement Sea Shepherd’s own approach to enforcing international law on the high seas on behalf of marine animals,” said Sea Shepherd’s Development Director Alex S. Earl. “We encourage our supporters who may be carrying a Sea Shepherd card issued by Bank of America to switch to and use the new CardPartner-issued card instead. And of course we encourage anyone who may not yet have one, to apply for the new Visa affinity credit card from CardPartner.”

Cardholders who use their Sea Shepherd Visa Platinum affinity credit card for shopping, dining out, online purchases and other everyday activities directly support Sea Shepherd in ending marine habitat destruction and the slaughter of defenseless animals including whales, sharks, seals, dolphins, and turtles. Sea Shepherd earns $50 for each activated card, plus a share of the monthly charge volume, paid quarterly over the life of the card.

Sea Shepherd offers the card at www.seashepherd.org/credit-card in cooperation with CardPartner, a New York-based company that helps all membership organizations establish the kinds of affinity credit card programs once reserved for the largest groups. CardPartner maximizes returns by stripping out costs, operating in the virtual environment, offering free, customized self-service marketing tools, and working with groups on a “human scale” not often seen in the credit card industry.

As seen on the “Whale Wars” TV program on the Animal Planet cable channel, Sea Shepherd uses their flagship vessel, the Steve Irwin, to stop illegal whale-hunting operations globally. Many notable individuals support these courageous efforts.

About Sea Shepherd

Founded in 1977 by Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (www.seashepherd.org) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

About CardPartner

CardPartner, Inc. (www.cardpartner.com) is an online company that specializes in helping U.S.-based non-profits and membership groups create free, customized Visa credit card programs. CardPartner is a unit of the privately held Serverside Group, a technology provider to many of the world’s leading banks. CardPartner affinity credit cards are issued by UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF), one of the largest independent banks in the United States and Smart Money magazine’s pick as “…the highest scoring traditional bank among our favorites.”