By Lisa Balschunat
Ninety staffers nationwide at Fingerpaint Marketing are getting help paying off their college student loans.
Edward Mitzen, founder of the Saratoga Springs-based company, saw an opportunity to assist employees in reducing or paying off their student loans. He gave each of them $30,000 for that purpose, with no strings attached.
“We recruit the best and the brightest,” Mitzen said. “We always look for ways to do right by staff. We cover 100 percent of their health care premiums. We offer paid sabbaticals … We had student loan program that paid out about $100 per month to a staffer. It was a nice program, but it wasn’t helping enough. It barely covered the interest on a monthly loan payment.”
Fingerpaint is a health and wellness marketing firm with a global team of more than 580 people. Known for its innovate and data-drive approach, the firm provides marketing solutions to healthcare clients specifically in the pharmaceutical, rare disease and gene therapy sectors.
“We conducted a staff survey about how much debt people were carrying due to college student loans,” he said. “What we found was that some people’s monthly payments were bigger than a monthly mortgage payment. Someone with a $40,000 loan who is paying into it for five years will still owe $40,000 in five years due to the interest.”
Mitzen, a Voorheersville native and Syracuse University graduate, worked in Columbus, Ohio, then returned to the Capital Region and created Fingerpaint Marketing in 2008. He said after reviewing the staff survey results he decided to do something drastic to assist a staff that he values and respects.
In Mitzen’s opinion, the real answer to helping young professionals overcome student debt is for the government to wipe out the interest. Not expecting that anytime soon, he opted to offer each $30,000.
What has come out of Mitzen’s philanthropic effort has been life changing for many. He said he’s received “amazing cards, letters and phone calls from staffers” saying what a strong impact it had to be releived of the financial weight.
“Business is good,” Mitzen said. So much so, that he and his wife, Lisa, established Business for Good, an initiative by which they acquire and accelerate small businesses in the Capital Region.
Over the past 13 years, Fingerpaint has grown exponentially, honing in on the healthcare pharmaceuticals market. It has expanded it locales to include Arizona, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Fingerpaint was named 2021 Agency of the Year by Med Ad News, and in 2018, received the Heart Award from the publication for its commitment to philanthropy and social causes. The firm has been on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 Fastest-Growing Companies for the past eight years.
For more information, visit Fingerpaint.com.