Foreign Coins Worth More Than You Think

Strategic giving strengthens culture and engagement, enhances your brand, attracts top talent and customers, and drives sustainable, profitable growth through measurable social impact.

In this episode, I had a discussion with Scott Hutchings, founder of Global Coin Solutions. He helps charities unlock value from foreign coins and currency, turning overlooked donations into meaningful funds—one cent at a time. With deep expertise in innovative fundraising, he drives impact for nonprofits worldwide
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scotthutchingsgcs/
https://www.globalcoinsolutions.com/

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Global Coin Solution
02:00 The Process of Currency Donation
05:45 Engaging Businesses in Charity
11:25 Challenges in Communication and Awareness
17:30 Benefits for Charities
21:59 The Unique Landscape of Foreign Currency Fundraising
32:04 Scott's Journey into Currency Solutions
40:26 Encouraging Community Participation in Charity

Transcript

Introduction to Global Coin Solution

SPEAKER_01 0:00

People are looking for the answer, looking for the solution. And the solution to I can't exchange it, I can't do anything with it, the alternative is to throwing it in the garbage, because that's what some people consider, and nobody wants to do that. Um, the alternative is donating it. Keep doing what you're doing. I'm not asking anybody to stop anything. Um, the difference with foreign currency fundraising is that you're right now, anyways, charities are not competing with other charities for this money. Right. There's there's so few charities that are doing this. And currency for kids is an example. There's 13 of them. They're and they're not competing with each other. They're actually trying to work together to elevate the message and get the word out there even louder. Um, but there's so much money out there. There's so much. We couldn't process it even if they collected at all. There's just that would be too much. It would be physically impossible. One of the things that's that's really, really embedded in what we're doing is trying to prevent money from being thrown away. Not just because it's a silly thing to do. It's because throwing a coin into a landfill, how long is it going to be there? Check your own change drawers, check check your your nightstands at home, um, check your pockets, go find your foreign currency, pull it all together, and you know, help somebody out.

The Process of Currency Donation

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Hi there, welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. In this episode, I had a discussion with Scott Hutchinks. Scott is the founder of a global coin solution. He turns forgotten a foreign coin into a real impact, helping charities raise funds effortlessly by converting travelers' leftover currency into donations that support kids, food banks, and disaster reliefs. Scott shared insights on how global coin solutions help charities turn forgotten foreign coins into meaningful donations. He shared the simple process, business engagement strategies, and environmental benefits of recycling currency and why this innovative approach delivers higher impact than traditional fundraising. If you find value in these discussions, don't forget to comment below, subscribe, and share with your friends. We are working very hard by every episode to bring you meaningful discussions with the business owners, business leaders, um, uh coaches, consultants, and trainers to help you grow and scale your business. Uh, your feedback and any support is very important to us. So thank you again for your support. Thank you again for your time. Please welcome Scott Hudginks. I guess welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. Today, our guest is uh Scott Hudgenks. Uh Scott, you know, you've been helping a lot of people, you've been doing a lot of good work uh out there, you know, trying to uh do, you know, for for many different causes. So looking forward to learning from you, looking forward to our discussion. Thank you so much for time today.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Appreciate it. So let's start from you know, uh, if you can walk us through what this uh global coin solution is about, you know, GCS, you guys call it. If you just walk us through what is that about and and how did that whole idea start it?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah, so at the core of what we do is helping charities. That's that's it's it's as simple as that, but we do it differently. So we help them by enabling them to be able to collect cash donations in any currency. So your leftover travel money, leftover foreign currency, or you may find that you've got change. You went you went and bought a coffee at Tim Hortons, and you have change and it's not Canadian money. What do you do with it? And so it's a good question, yeah. At at the end of the day, there's there's a couple of alternatives. You know, you can try your bank, you can try a currency exchange, you can always go back to wherever the money came from. And and in the case of you know, if you got it as change from Tim Hortons, you didn't go there in the first place, so you're not likely going to go back. But that is traveling back to that country just simply to get a few dollars of value is likely not a good spend. And so the alternative is you can't do anything with it. And and and we have, you know, people are people are are looking for the answer, looking for the solution. And the solution to I can't exchange it, I can't do anything with it, the alternative is to throwing it in the garbage, because that's what some people consider, and nobody wants to do that. The alternative is donating it. And you know, it's it it's the kind of thing, sadly, you know, we're we're an industry of one here in in Canada and North America, but it's something that is actually really well known in other countries. You know, if you go to England, for example, okay, my research has has determined that this is something that started back in the 80s, and virtually every charity there collects leftover foreign currency. And and it's just it's part of their their normal method of fundraising, and uh, and it works for them, and it's never dried up.

Engaging Businesses in Charity

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Does it have to be foreign currency, Scott? It could be just uh your own currency. Oh, I mean, sure, sure. I mean, you we you know, we go in the cars and there's always we keep, you know, the chain is always there. We you know, that you know, we full a tray of or we have some sort of container where we keep putting the chains in, and what do we do with this? We end up throwing it out.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Oh, yeah. Oh, without without any question at all. You know, the the ask with this program or these these types of programs is donate your leftover foreign currency. In reality, people are donating everything. And, you know, there are some programs we have, 50 to 65 percent of what's donated is domestic currency. It's can Canadian money or American money. And so, you know, at the end of the day, as long as as long as the the cause, the the charity and the work that they're doing and the impact that they're having is something that resonates with the donor, the person who has the cash, they're going to donate. You know, I I was at an event today where where we're we're actually working with with a senior center. They're they're collecting within, they have their own program to help seniors who are disadvantaged. And we had brought in a collector from another program that was that was that was ongoing just to show them. And in this collector was a hundred dollar Canadian bill. And that the the collector was placed at a church, and they were asking their community to donate to support this local shelter. And again, the ask is very clear. We're asking you to give your leftover foreign currency, but of course, we'll take any currency, and so somebody put in a hundred dollar bill.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

So, how does the process work, Scott? So if you walk us through, so you support charities, so charities, let's say there's a charity for blood donation or so, whatever charity is, right? Yeah, so so they go to their their contacts and they simply say, Listen, we're running some cause, you know, some uh fundraiser for this cause. Is that how it works? If you can walk us through instead of me trying to take a shot at it.

Challenges in Communication and Awareness

SPEAKER_01 8:00

But that that's that's essentially it. So, you know, we've we've created a couple of programs. We have one called Currency for Kids, and there's 13 different children's aid foundations across Ontario who are part of this program, and they've actually got business partners in the community who have got collectors on the counters. We make it as easy as possible. The the partnership between us and the charity makes it as easy as possible for for the the average Canadian to donate. So they're promoting the program, we're promoting their promotion, we're we're also helping to elevate the word and and get get the message out there as best we can. We have we have logos and links on our website. We have a Google map that shows every location that we are involved with anywhere in the world. So people can very easily find where to go, where to donate. So you donate, you know, after a period of time, either the charity is out there engaging with that business, emptying the collectors, bringing the money back to their office, and then passing it through to us, or we're out there collecting it. The the donations all end up back at our office where we take everything apart and we we do it all, it's all segmented by client, by charity, in some cases it's by location within the charity because there's different needs. And then it's all sorted by hand because there is no machinery that was ever built to separate mixed currency. Once it is separated, we can then use machinery to break down you know the different denominations of coin, for example, and then count it and and that kind of thing. And then we start the process of repatriation. So we're actually shipping the coin back to the country that it came from. Got it. So a really good example would be we recognize that American coins, we can use them here in Canada. Right? You go to a Tim Hortons, you go into a Starbucks, you put down a bunch of quarters, and they will accept those at face value. And the American dollar typically is worth 20 to 35 percent more than the Canadian dollar. So you you recognize the you know, the average person can recognize that there is a discrepancy there. So we ship the US coin back to the US. We ship euros back to Europe, we should ship pounds back to Britain, yen back to Japan, Hong Kong dollars back to Hong Kong, and so on, because those are the only places that the coin has value. Now we also process and accept and and and handle banknotes from every country. We we also process currencies that are no longer in existence: Italian Lyra, Spanish Posada, French franc. They still have value for our charity partners because we have connections that allow us to get value for that. And so, in the in the cases where we can ship the currency back, we ship it back, goes by ocean freight usually, so it takes a while to get there. We have insurance that covers it. We've never had to use it. Okay, so very good. It gets there, it gets processed on that end, as with anything, it has to be verified, it has to be deposited. Though those all those things take effort and work on the on behalf of the organization on the other end. And when they're done, they say, Yep, okay, you shipped us X number of whatever it might be. We we validated that the number is correct, they deduct their fee, they then send us a wire transfer for the balance. And now we know exactly what that was worth, and then we're able to break it down amongst our clients, and then at that point in time, we are in a position where we can finally get paid as well because we don't we don't send our clients a bill. We don't, we there was no sign-up fee to do this, there was no upfront, there was no monthly. There's the program pays for itself. We're taking something that has no value, doing all the work that needs to be done to get value for it, bringing that value back, and then the majority of the funds ends up back with the charity. We also have, and and I'm not gonna talk numbers, and those are those are ourselves and the and the clients, but we do have a within that program for two reasons. One is because we honestly believe that there is billions of dollars out there, so we have an incentive essentially in place that for you know, as as more and more and more is is collected is raised, our fee drops. So more money goes back to the charity. And like I said, we do that to show our belief that there's a lot of money out there, but also because we work better in volume, just like with most organizations everywhere. And so the more volume we have, the more efficient we can be, both with our manpower, person power sorting, but also spreading the costs out when we're shipping currency around the world. Yeah, so the more that's collected, the more goes back to the charity.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Does it have to be currencies, God? If somebody wants to just donate a money, do you guys take any you know just add digital money as well? Like whether it's you know, credit cards or just just side or you know, any other any form, it has to be currency, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yes, we're we're we're dealing with physical currency. We we have a separate program that's that's QR codes. Okay, so that that is driven from credit cards, but that that's a separate thing. It's secondary and it's supposed to augment the foreign currency. But our core, our core work is in the foreign currency space. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

So I see there's a big advantage for charities and also for you know for the good cause you're helping those people out. But how about a business? How do businesses that you know they want to get involved? Business owners are watching or listening to us, definitely they want to get involved. How do they see this? That that you know, get given back, you know, how do they communicate with the employees or their staff? How do they encourage people? What do they see in this uh program?

Benefits for Charities

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, so there's there's actually so many different ways that a business can get involved. So, right at the core is becoming a collection point. So if if somebody has a retail business and you know, we with currency for kids, for example, we do have a corporate partner who has 19 locations across Ontario, and they have collectors in every one of their locations, and as they're interacting with their clients, this there's they see this right in front of them. But what this program also does is it creates awareness that those businesses are collecting and it drives people to go into those locations to drop off their donations. And we we have, and it's not anecdotal, it's not third party, we have first hand experience where we've been in the locations collecting, and people have walked in with money just to donate. And of course, having having foot traffic go through a retail business, that is that's the key to life. And so these these businesses now have the opportunity to interact with people who may or may not be clients already. And so we're we're helping do that. So as I said on our on our website, we have we have a Google map, and it includes every location that somebody can go, that you can walk into to drop off a donation. That's the charity partner, and it's the business partner. Got it, got it. You know, we have one of our partners, they they have partnered with a franchise, one franchise in a burger chain. And they're on the map, they are on the map. You can see them. There, it's no question about it at all. Everybody in the area can see, they go to the map, they'll zoom in, and they will then be able to click on that, and it'll bring up that location, their information, their address. And so, yeah, we're we're also trying to promote the businesses that are helping the charities. And as part of that, we we highly recommend that our charity partners do the same thing, and they do, because they're very thankful that those businesses are helping and supporting. So that's that's one way. Any business that's that's larger than that, that that it does not have a retail space, but may have an office that's got tens, dozens, hundreds or thousands of employees. Maybe it's even a multinational company that has employees traveling the world, they can absolutely get involved. They can do an employee engagement program that allows them to celebrate diversity, yeah, celebrate culture, you know, and I don't know about you, but I the next best thing to going on vacation is talking about it. Yeah. And so even if it's not a cultural experience from the perspective of I'm talking about my home country and the currency that that exists there and and the stories that are told in the currency itself, you can relive your vacations, and those are good things to do as well. Anything that can can give us a positive boost, give us positive good thoughts, especially in this day and age, unfortunately, yeah, is good. Is good, and so you know, I I recommend any organization that's doing something like that, go into a staples, buy a map, get some stickers, get a good map of the world, get some stickers, and as people are donating, dropping their their money into whatever they they're using to collect, whatever that might be. It could be a coffee can, it could be an old water cooler jug, it doesn't matter. Put a sticker on the country that that came from and see where your your staff has traveled to and celebrate that. Yeah, right? I mean, it's there's so there's so many stories to be told, so many experiences, so many cultural differences to be celebrated while you're doing something good, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

While you're supporting a cause there, yeah, yeah. So very interesting. What do you see? Some of the feedback coming from uh Scott or or you know, sometimes business start program and this drop in the middle. Where do you see some of the challenges are in you know where the people you know they didn't continue or they did they didn't support it for a long time? What are some of the if you can talk about some of the challenges? Is that communication or simply just not getting behind the cause, I guess, right?

The Unique Landscape of Foreign Currency Fundraising

SPEAKER_01 19:55

No, it's it really is more communication than it is anything. As I said, as I said, we're an industry of one. So our voice is only so loud. Our of course our charity partners, they have voices as well, but they also have multiple streams of fundraising. They have multiple things that they are talking about on a regular basis, and so you know it it does come down to communication without any any question at all. It it starts and stops with communication. We have we've had organizations do an event, a gala, and they've they put out the word yeah, kind of, you know, they they could have done a better job at it, let's put it this way. They they manage to collect something, but people show up and say, I didn't know you were doing that. I've got so much at home, because everybody, virtually everybody does. So, yes, it the messaging is is very important. And and again, I I respect and and understand completely that charities have a lot of messages to share. And so that's one of the reasons why I constantly tell charities, yes, you know, we're we're going after more charities. We want to we want to work with any charity that's out there and every charity. And there's so much money that we're not gonna run out of this, it's gonna be a long and and if if the if England, the UK is any indication, they're never gonna run out of it. Yeah. But as more and more charities are coming on board and doing this, then the messaging is being elevated and it's getting louder. And there may be one day, hopefully very soon, where a national charity says, We've got a program, this is what it's all about. And people will say, Hang on a second. I heard about it. Where did I hear about it? Oh, it was from this. Other little charity. Oh, hey, they're doing this now. So as more and more charities get involved, the the word will get out there, the the messaging will become clearer, people will understand what the ask is, what what they can do to give. And I will I will tell you one of the questions that we get constantly. You asked earlier about Canadian money. Do you accept pennies? We accept everything. Pennies include these pennies are still worth a penny. Exactly. There's a lot of penny collections out there.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Got it, got it. Yeah, so it's I think it's uh one is a communication on uh to start a program, then a constant reminder to people. Um, since we you know there's so much goes on on a daily basis, we all forget about it, but somehow you gotta constantly remind people that hey, this is where we started, you know. Uh so we make sure you're part of it, right? So it's it's constantly sending those messages. I think that's probably more important that so people don't forget about this.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yeah, and and we do that ourselves as well. You know, we we promote our our currency for kids program, we promote all of the charity partners that are behind it, we promote all of the business partners that are behind it, and we do everything we can to get that message out there. But again, we're not the ones asking for the donations. We're helping promote the program, we're helping promote the individual charities and and organizations, but we're not the ones that are asking for the donation. It's the charity itself. And and ultimately, they need to take ownership for the messaging, for the voice, and and share it as loudly as they as they possibly can and as frequently as possible as they possibly can.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Charities have a lot of options. Uh, you know, I was part of well, part of one as well a while ago, uh, you know, in a few years back, uh Scott. So so charities have a bunch of options. So, you know, what is some of the benefit? If you can talk about just a quick message, so for for charities, what should they pick this over the other one? I know they do a lot of our marathon as well, a lot of other other programs as well, but this one seems to be not take as much time from from uh from on a daily basis, right? You just you have to get rid of chain anyway. So you're doing that in an organized way, right? So where other programs, some of those you have to commit a lot of time on a on a daily basis to run those programs. So, what do you find some of the you know differences between other program charities are going after or or they should be you're running this program?

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Well, uh the first thing I would say is keep doing what you're doing. Uh I'm not asking anybody to stop anything. The difference with foreign currency fundraising is that you're right now, anyways, charities are not competing with other charities for this money. Right. There's there's so few charities that are doing this, and currency for kids is an example. There's 13 of them, they're not and they're not competing with each other, they're actually trying to work together to elevate the message and get the word out there even louder. But there's so much money out there, there's so much we couldn't process it even if they collect it at all. There's just that would be too much, it would be physically impossible. But this is not like right now. If if you ask any charity what is your biggest challenge, the biggest challenge is that every dollar they're asking for, every other charity is asking for the same dollar. Literally, it's the same dollar. You've got a loony in your hand. Who do I give it to? Yeah. Whereas with foreign currency, nobody else is asking for it right now, or very, very, very few people are. And so you can give it to the one that that asks for it. You know, one of one of the really interesting facets of this is, and I mentioned it right at the beginning, people are looking for the answer of what they what can I do with my foreign currency? Because the my bank isn't taking it, my currency exchange isn't taking it. The currency exchange will take some, but they won't take all. And nobody is taking coin. So now they move to the next step. What can I can I do with it? And they're finding either our website or our partner websites where it's the charity themselves. And this is not an exaggeration in any way, shape, or form. People from across Canada are mailing their donations in. They're either mailing them directly to us, in which case they're just sending them in, knowing that we are going to allocate that that donation to one of our partners, which we do, or they're mailing it into the Ottawa Children's Aid Foundation or the Halton Children's Aid Foundation from British Columbia. Now, the Ottawa Children's Aid Foundation can't help anybody in British Columbia, but they're mailing it in anyways, because there's nobody in BC that is that is accepting foreign currency right now. We've also had Americans mail Canadian money back in. Now that one's a you know, that one makes a little bit more sense because they can't do anything with it there, and they saw that this charity was collecting it, so they sent it. Yeah. But we also had a donor from Hong Kong, and yes, I'm talking about Hong Kong on the other side of the world. They mailed in an envelope full of Canadian banknotes, Canadian coin, and a letter. And they said, We visited 20 odd years ago. We can't do anything with this now, nobody will take it. We hope it helps. Wow. It was hundreds of dollars, hundreds of dollars, and I'll be the first one to tell you, I never thought we would get Canadian money coming back to us from outside of Canada. That was never on my radar. So I was shocked at that, and and that was, and I'm not not doing a plug here, but the reality is it was a Google ad. And Google, like them or lump them, you know, they have a program called the Google Ad Grant, and it's four charities. Nice. And they provide ten thousand dollars a month in free Google ads for charities. If you're if you're a registered charity, you're qualified. Done. You just have to sign up. And it was because of the Google ad that somebody in Hong Kong saw it. A free ad brought in hundreds of dollars.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Yeah, yeah. You know, but I and I think that that, you know, I know in Canada we have a bunch of you know, panties, and we like to we throw them, throw them out, but I know some cultures is against that, that they're believed to to uh throw money in a garbage, right? So I think that's another part of it that you know I I know I'm not sure if Chinese people believe that. I know some South Indian people believe that some of the cultures I know this uh is totally against the belief to uh throw money in a in a in a garbage, so they have to find a way somehow to give it back to whether it's you guys, whether it's somebody else, but they have to use the money somehow, right?

Scott's Journey into Currency Solutions

SPEAKER_01 29:27

And and it's it's interesting. I've learned a lot about Japan in the past few years. We just we actually opened an office in Tokyo, and the five yen coin, which is essentially our nickel, the five yen coin is specifically used to donate. So there's there's thousands upon thousands of temples across Japan, and every one of them has a collection box, it's a wish box. And there's there's a ritual that you go through, you throw in the five yen coin as well as other money, and it's a donation, and it's uh you know a wish for the future. But to your point, so the one of the things that that's really really embedded in what we're doing is trying to prevent money from being thrown away. Not just because it's a silly thing to do, it's because throwing a coin into a landfill, how long is it gonna be there? Yeah, right. And if you look at if you look at our dime, for example, our dime is really thin, it's really small. There are coins out there that I'm not joking, you could use them as a weapon if you chose to. They are that thick and heavy. Yeah, and and I I have no idea how long it takes a dime to break down in a landfill. These other coins, I mean, they'll be there for for centuries, I'm sure. And so part of what we're trying to do is keep that that those those coins out of landfill, those coins and banknotes, out of landfill, return them to the country that they came from, so that they can be reused and recirculated and live out their lifespan, which is between 25 and 30 years of use in people's pockets, in cash registers, just being used on a regular basis. They're supposed to last that long. So we're trying to keep them out of landfill, where they're supposed to be. That also helps the environment from another perspective because the more that we can recirculate this coin, the less coin needs to be minted. And if we're not minting as much coin, then we're not mining as much metals. All of those things are positive impacts on the environment if we're reusing and recirculating this coin.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

I heard the story, I'm not sure if it's true or not, Dascott. One on one by UC, you know, you probably have some idea. The penny we used to have in Canada, yeah. Was there cost of you know, the value of the penny? Was it less than than material, the copper we use in a penny? You know, I heard a story that the the the copper we use in a a penny was more valuable than the one penny, and some people were shipping that to other countries to melt it and use the copper as a metal instead of uh paying for the penny. Is that true, uh Ruby, or is it just this uh Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 32:39

I'm not sure what the value of the how much the copper is worth in a penny today, but I think we stopped stopped using copper in 1984, I think it was. But it used to be the the analogy was that the copper value was three times, so it was worth three cents. And yes, there are stories of people who were searching for copper. It is illegal to deface and damage coin in country, but it's also illegal to ship coin out of the country for the purpose of melting it down. Heard stories about yes, people doing that. Same with same with the old silver dimes and quarters. But yeah, it it happens, and that's and that is why, right, wrong or otherwise, why the US stopped producing the penny uh last year. Having said that, they have enough pennies in circulation. They're not gonna do what we did for for quite some time. We stopped using the penny very intentionally when the Royal Canadian Mint stopped making it, and pennies now go back to the mint to be melted down. In the US, they have billions, hundreds of billions of pennies out there in circulation. They'll be there for years. So but interesting. The penny penny did cut it actually cost more than the one cent value to make.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

So interesting. So let's talk about your uh Scott. How did you get involved in this? How you know, if you talk about your journey, were you know what you were doing before you got involved, and and you know, how did you uh got got into it?

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Yeah, so I tripped into it actually. I had been I had been working many years ago for a couple of small companies you may and may or may not have heard of, IBM and Lenovo. Yeah, what do you small? Yeah. I I I worked with IBM at first and then Lenovo purchased the the PC division, and I worked for them for quite a few years. Really loved the company, great, innovative, forward-thinking company. Um they one of the of the aspects that I really liked about them was that they also wanted their employees changing roles every 12 to 18 to 24 months so that they learn more and they didn't have to leave. They could get another job internally and still be excited about where they worked, which kind of set me up for where I ended up. So within IBM and Lenovo, I did a lot of different things, left there after quite a quite a few years, and I was bouncing around for a little while, as people tend to do when you when you leave somebody someplace that you've been for so long. And I applied to a posting on LinkedIn, and to be very honest, I didn't understand what the company did, but reading the job description, I'm like, okay, well, I can do that. That sounds sounds like right up my alley, and it actually worked really well with all of the different experience that I had. And so I applied to the job, got an interview. They were a company based out of the UK, they did similar work to what we do now. I got hired and was working for them for a year and a half, really enjoyed what I was doing, and their UK office shut down. They were competing in other areas and different challenges, and they shut the business down. So I was at a point in my life where you know I needed to figure out what the heck I was doing and getting older, but I also had staff that I had to worry about, and I also had clients that I was very concerned about, and so it just seemed unnatural to figure out how to pick this up and do it on my own. And I started GCS, it's just just 11 years and almost one month to this day. So February of 2015, GCS started. And you know, it's I I've been making it up as I go along isn't really the right phrase because it's not quite that loosey-goosey, but we've had to figure out a lot of things as as time goes on, and you know, starting an office in Japan, starting at some uh something on the other side of the world was never never on in the in my mind. And now we've also taken it a step further, and we're we're slowly owning the the logistics around moving coin everywhere. And for for other other organizations, including including the organizations that that do this in the UK, that do it in Europe, and we're we're opening up new new countries to be able to repatriate and and recirculate more and more different currencies as time goes on. So yeah, it's it's been a journey.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

You mentioned a UK, and then you mentioned is it's is is it a franchise or is that is is it's a global uh a global organization, Scott?

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Or you no, so so GCS is in is in Toronto and in Tokyo. So we we have two offices. There are companies in the UK, they've been doing this much longer than I have. They are DFP currency and all that stuff. Similar, there they are currency exchanges, first and foremost. We are not, but they do this because they're in the currency exchange space. They're and they've been doing this for so long. They they literally have been they've been long around longer than we have. But now we are what we are doing is we're consolidating all the freight for everybody and doing it, doing it cheaper. We're finding cheaper ways to do it, we're doing it under our insurance. And so it's better, it's better for all of the charities that are involved with all of these organizations because as we lower costs, that means more money is is available to go back to the charities. So you know, we're not directly directly supporting the charities in the UK, we're indirectly supporting them big time. Nice, nice, nice.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Is that connected? Uh, you know, your the this office of Tokyo, is that connected to some sort of travel industry as well, uh Scott? If the travel goes up, does that that does that impact your business? Because more people traveling, more is gonna they're gonna bring the currency back. So is that some shape or form connected with that industry?

Encouraging Community Participation in Charity

SPEAKER_01 39:34

It is. We're not we're not directly connected. We do have we do have partnerships in in travel for sure. You know, we we work we work directly with Air Canada and the Air Canada Foundation, and they've got a program called Every Bit Counts. And so, yes, without any question at all, as their travel numbers go up and and we do see the patterns throughout the year, you know, obviously Christmas and New Year's is a heavy travel time. March break is summer is the biggest. We do see the the the dips and valleys, uh peaks and valleys of of the travel industry, and we work with with other organizations in in the travel industry as well. But in general, the a lot of the programs are promoting around the peak travel times. So, you know, even our currency for kids partners that they're gonna ask more frequently during summer than they do other times of the year. So even though they're not current directly related to the travel industry itself, they are conscious of when people are traveling.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Good good. Yeah, I think it's a great program. You're helping out a lot of people, especially with the charity side. You know, there's there's a lot of good causes you guys helping out. So, you know, business owners listening who are watching us on a podcast, definitely I will encourage them to uh reach out to you for conversation. Who knows? You know, we're working, you know, there's there's it looks like it's a benefit for everybody, but business, people who are involved, charities for everybody. I think it's it's like it's it's a good cause all around to help people out.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Yeah, and and I think uh sorry, no, no, worry. I think that any business that's helping charity, that's good for their client, those that business's clients.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

It's also good for their morale values, the moral values of the business is people just to feel feel better.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

Yeah, so like I said, we know our programs are driving traffic into these businesses. So anybody that is is looking for assistance from a traffic perspective, you know. I'm not I'm not saying I'm gonna solve your traffic problem by any stretch, but yeah, it's it's still it's still a good story to tell, and and that will increase your traffic and change your traffic patterns as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

For sure. Good stuff. Any message you want to leave for business owner what you know, listening or watching us as Scott? Anything uh you want to leave, especially the March break coming up, I think it's probably a good place to start for some programs.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Yeah, actually, we're hoping we're hoping to have a national program launch right around March break, hopefully just before March break. But check, check your your your own change drawers, check check your your nightstands at home, check your pockets, go find your foreign currency, pull it all together, and you know, help somebody out. It's not gonna take a coffee out of your day, you know. I know some charities promote just for the price of a coffee a day. We're not suggesting that you have to give something up to do this, yeah, right? So don't throw don't throw money in the garbage, and don't throw money in the garbage, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Yeah, you know, it's just says, you know, we keep clecting those chains. You know, I have a habit of doing not throwing in the garbage, but have a habit of whoever's cleaning a car, hey, just just can you just take the changes? But you could use that for good cause as well, right? So, you know, I think there's such a weird program, you know, you can help out many different ways.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Yeah, and you know, our slogan is on our website, it's it's very clear. We're we're we're hope we're trying to change the world one cent at a time. And if you visit our website, you'll see that the cent changes to the different currencies. Uh nice. So, yeah, you know the the phrase we use these days is any currency, any amount, it all adds up. And so, you know, even if you think you don't have a lot, if you put it together with somebody else who doesn't have a lot and somebody else, it all adds up.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

Yeah, and it made well kudos kudos to you guys. You guys make an effort and and and are providing people platforms so they can use that to to do some good in and in society. So, you know, somebody gotta start somewhere. So I'm glad you guys. Started so kudos to you guys for putting effort in and putting our foot forward. Where can people connect with you, Scott? And how can they how can they uh have a conversation with you?

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Yeah, I mean our first place to start would be our website, globalcoinsolutions.com. We're also on Facebook, we're also on LinkedIn. You know, connect with us anyway. You'll you'll see our our posts that are out there, and I'm happy to have a conversation with anybody, uh whether it's from a fundraising perspective or a business that wants to get involved, we can partner you up with a with a charity. They're always, always happy to have new businesses come on board. They're excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

So I will include a link to both uh your email and LinkedIn and also your website as below this video. And uh business owner, business leaders who are watching or listening to us. I'll definitely encourage you, listen, uh, um, click a button, reach out to you for conversation. Who knows? I learned so much from our discussion. I have no idea what how this program works. Thanks for walking me through. I'm sure the business leaders who are watching or listening, they they have a conversation with you, they're gonna learn a lot as well. So uh encourage them to click a button, reach out to you, have a conversation. Who knows what opportunity is gonna open up for them? Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Thank you so much for time, Scott. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Okay, likewise, thank you. All right, take care of it.