Colorado REA Reimagines Student Travel Stipends with Branded Prepaid Cards

Each year, the Colorado Rural Electric Association (Colorado REA) sponsors outstanding high school students to attend the National Rural Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington, D.C. The program builds community engagement, fosters leadership, and inspires the next generation of cooperative advocates.

While the trip itself was transformative, one part of the program consistently posed challenges: how to safely provide students with spending money. Traditional approaches, cash or generic prepaid cards, created risks and missed an opportunity to highlight the cooperative’s brand.

For students traveling in a busy, unfamiliar city, cash wasn’t secure, and generic gift cards lacked visibility and tracking. Program organizers faced three key hurdles:

• Safety risks: Carrying large sums of cash increased vulnerability for students.

• Limited control: Prepaid cards without oversight made it difficult to monitor or manage spending.

• Missed branding opportunity: Generic cards offered no connection back to the sponsoring co-op.

Colorado REA needed a modern solution that would balance safety and flexibility while reinforcing the cooperative’s role in making the Youth Tour possible.

Colorado REA partnered with Choice Digital to launch Touchstone Energy-branded prepaid cards for student stipends. These cards prominently featured the co-op brand while replacing the risks of cash with a safer, trackable, and more flexible payment option.

With built-in controls, organizers could ensure funds were used appropriately, while students enjoyed the freedom to manage their stipends with ease. Parents, too, gained peace of mind knowing their children weren’t traveling with cash.

The new stipend cards delivered benefits well beyond logistics:

• Safer payments: Eliminated the risks of carrying cash during travel.

• Streamlined logistics: Reduced administrative burden for organizers.

• Peace of mind: Parents and staff felt more confident about student safety.

• Stronger brand presence: Every purchase highlighted the co-op’s role in sponsoring the experience.

With Choice Digital, Colorado REA turned a routine stipend into a branded, secure, and memorable part of the Youth Tour. By aligning payments with both safety and visibility, the association created a stronger connection between students and the co-op, while opening the door to new uses for branded prepaid cards across its programs.