How a Toronto-based company sorts foreign cash for charities | Globalnews.ca

At Global Coin Solutions, the painstaking process of sorting through currency from around the world is done largely by hand.

The Ontario company, which specializes in cash management and foreign currency fundraising, is looking to effect change for those most in need.

“Our estimates are that there’s between two and three billion dollars in foreign currency in Canada doing nothing,” company founder and president Scott Hutchings said.

Hutchings estimates his business has processed around $25 million through its Toronto facility. He tells Global News the lion’s share of that has been for charities.

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Taking an, ‘Any currency, any amount’ approach, the walls in Hutchings’ office are a visual feast of finance. He says it all starts with the donations.

“We work with the different charities we’re working with, we arrange for the funds to come back to our office,” Hutchings explained.

From there, it’s documented, weighed and organized. Then, at the end of the month, they begin what’s referred to as the repatriation process. That entails shipping the money back to the country where it originated.

Once the cash is verified and processing fees are factored in, Hutchings says the charity gets paid and his company collects a fee.

In 2020, Currency for Kids was launched as a partnership between the company and a raft of children’s charities in Ontario. Proceeds from the agreement, which is now more than four years old, are sent to a dozen children’s aid foundations in the province.

“We’ve had people mail in their foreign currency from B.C., from Alberta, from Quebec. And I asked them, how did you find out about this?” said Walter Noble, the executive director for the Children’s Aid Foundation of Ottawa.

“And the interesting part is they were going to throw it out.”

Hutchings estimates his company has processed more than $50,000 worth of currency value for the initiative and hopes more people will think twice about the change their leftover coins could inspire.

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