This page was exported from The Auroran [ http://www.newspapers-online.com/auroran ] Export date:Thu Apr 25 19:44:02 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Trureal program launches new program of giving in Aurora --------------------------------------------------- Horace Thomas emigrated to Canada from Jamaica in 1973.  Growing up in Canada, he aspired to become a high school teacher. He joined the Peel District School Board and taught biology and chemistry. But, 14 years ago, what he aspired and fought for changed, as if he had an epiphany. Thomas resigned from teaching and turned his talents over to the business world. He got involved in real estate investments in Central America and the Bank of Barbados for a start.  In 2014, Thomas and Josephine Zappone conceptualized an idea right at his kitchen table. How can they help the food banks? It isn't just simply about making sure the homeless and less fortunate families are fed. It was about raising food quality to provide healthy meals.  To many families, forking out money per month out of your own pocket isn't something that can be done every day. But what if it was a reflex? Something you didn't even have to worry about, but rather, your purchasing power as an everyday consumer does it for you.  “What if you could give to charity and never take any additional money out of your pocket and get a tax receipt? Would you give to charity?” Thomas asked Zappone back then. She said “of course I would.”  Thus, Thomas and Zappone's business was born. They questioned how they can transform the entire charity sector in Canada and beyond.  For the past six years, the co-founders and Thomas' eldest son and major contributor on the IT side of things, Tyler, have been working on the platform. They decided Aurora was the best launchpad to officially announce their business to all of Canada.  “It's a massive integrated platform. We are actually integrated with 9,600 banks. All of the networks from Visa, Mastercard, AMEX and Discover. And you can link any credit card or debit card from any of your banks from Canada and the USA,” Thomas explained in an interview. “You can link up to three charities to your card from our platform because all of the registered charities in Canada – and, by the way, there are 86,000 registered charities in Canada – they're integrated on our platform, via our partnership with Canada Helps, which is the largest charity platform in Canada.”  Trureal optimizes consumer's cash back rewards that often times remain unused. Thomas said $16 billion dollars of unredeemed cash back rewards currently sit in consumers' bank accounts. “You can opt in to our platform. Link that bank funded card. Shop anywhere and then instruct us to remove your cash back from that bank card to whatever charity you want,” Thomas said. “Now you will not be limited to just shopping at participating merchants, you can shop anywhere in the world. And get a cashback and donate to your charity. But it's when you shop at a Trureal participating merchant, then you get a second cash back that doubles your donation. In fact, nobody has been able to crack that and the reason we can do that is because we have a major integrator partner called Plaid.”  If your card is cash back or based on points, both will be applicable. Consumers can donate to a linked charity as they wish or they can donate to a not-for-profit organization such as a local sports team, for instance. How you use your cash back rewards is entirely up to you and you must authorize Trureal to use it. You can also change your charities and not-for profit organizations at any time.  The Town of Aurora currently hosts 84 registered charities. If you include all not-for-profit organizations, that number is most likely double. It was the perfect beginning for the company to officially unveil Trureal.  “We had an opportunity to incorporate ourselves in Aurora over the last year and a half. The first thing we did as a company is we became a member of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce. After meeting with Mayor Mrakas, we quickly realized this is a Town that leads with purpose.” Both Thomas and Zappone presented Trureal in front members of Council, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, staff of Sport Aurora, a representative from Southlake Regional Health Centre, and Mayor Tom Mrakas last Thursday at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 385.  “Aurora Town Council and myself as Mayor fully support unique and forward-thinking initiatives that will help our community flourish. And will provide assistance to the less fortunate,” said Mrakas at the event.  “As a diverse and vibrant community, Aurora celebrates business such as Trureal that supports the economic and social development of our Town.”  With all the potential charities that can be linked this will have an impact on the local economy. Money spent turns into money being funded back to a charity or a not-for-profit entity.  In turn this business will immediately assist local sports organizations that are not-for-profits and will look to continue to build up their funding to continue to support youth.  “For Sport Aurora, this will help fund our All Kids Can Play Program. We want our members to join with Trureal and shop at Trureal merchants and direct their cash back to AKCP so that more kids can play in the community,” said President of Sport Aurora and Community Engagement Specialist with Trureal Ron Weese.  Trureal is completely free and there are no fundraising fees when signing up for Trureal.  When donating to a registered charity of your choice, those donations are taxable and you will receive a tax receipt.  According to Thomas, the charity sector is the largest in Canada. It contributes 8.1 per cent of the GDP. It's a $151 million-dollar industry and 84 per cent of Canadians donate. In the sector over 13 million Canadians volunteer.  For more information and to contact Trureal, please visit trureal.com.  By Robert Belardi --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2021-12-02 16:30:49 Post date GMT: 2021-12-02 21:30:49 Post modified date: 2021-12-02 16:41:50 Post modified date GMT: 2021-12-02 21:41:50 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com