Thailand’s Coin⇌Back will place your unused travelling coins for a good cause

There are many times when we underestimate the power of valuable coins and neglect them. Travellers fall in the same category too, especially, when they return to their home-country after their journey. You will often have a bunch of coins which in a way are of no use other than just serving as collectibles.

Coin⇌Back, a Bangkok based social enterprise founded by Naoe Miyata and Jasnam Sachathep last year, wants to change the way those coins are used with an inventive solution for the travellers. Essentially, Coin⇌Back allows people to donate their left-over coins across a choice of causes. Its useful concept can be of great use for the entire non-profit industry.

Co-Founders Naoe Miyata and Jasnam Sachathep with the rest of the team

How does it work?

The brand plans to  place its kiosks in convenient places such as departure halls of the airports, hotels, malls and other public places. The donation process is very simple. During the first phase, the donators will be requested to insert coins into the machines. Post that, they will be asked to choose any one cause and NGO for the donation and lastly, for their altruistic behaviour, they will be rewarded with the discount coupons and receipts. That’s pretty much it!

Coin⇌Back also plans to work closely with the NGOs via active communication and by joining on-site activities to ensure that the money is being used for the designated cause. To keep a track on the contribution and observe the impact of it, relevant e-mails will be sent to the donators. As a travelling donator, you can check the progress of the social investment through the official website and social media channels.

According to the article, there will be two versions of the donating machine. The first one will be a small box worth $710 and the other will be a large kiosk worth $1700.  This is the prototype unit price. The costs will reduce eventually.

Challenges faced by Coin⇌Back:

Taking about the challenges the company faces, Naoe Miyata, the CEO and co-founder, said:

“The biggest challenge that we have at the moment is finding the corporate partners. We believe that in order to find the right partners, we need to have sufficient customers and prove that our business model works. I think we are ready, as we have the machine, sufficient NGO partners (19 NGOs), and some corporate partners who are willing to help us locate the machine. Now it’s our responsibility to acquire and satisfy these customers.”

Goals of Coin⇌Back:

The main goal of Coin⇌Back is to promote transparency in the donation process. It intends to combine the already existing business models that work with important social aspects. This will attract the businesses, NGOs and potential donators.

The whole concept perfectly fits the travel industry. This will encourage travellers to donate more while they are waiting to board their flights to home-destinations. In addition, once these machines get installed at airports, shopping malls and other public places, both inbound & outbound travellers might use their ‘change to make a change’ for the less-privileged. We believe that solutions like Coin⇌Back can have mainstream adoption in emerging markets across Southeast Asia if they can fork out partnerships with government & private entities in the near future.

What is your take on Coin⇌Back’s solution?.