Since 2010, donated to support academics, agriculture, arts and athletics programs for Valley students — funded by a gold-buying event our customers show up for every year.
In 2012, $50 tickets for a shot at 29 ounces of gold. April through July, the Valley raised a quarter of a million dollars for the hospital.
It's a gold-buying event — the proceeds go to the Fresno and Tulare County Offices of Education. People bring in gold they weren't using; the money lands with school children, funding academics, agriculture, arts and athletics.
Since 2010 that has come to $343,296. Not a round marketing number — an actual total, because it was counted.
Larry L. Powell, of Fresno County Schools, put it this way: "Fresno Coin Gallery has set the bar high for school-business partnerships. Thanks to their leadership and generosity, our students have unique opportunities to succeed in the arts, agriculture, athletics and academics."
Not as a donor — as a director of the Foundation at Fresno County Office of Education. The money and the time go to the same place, which is a reasonable test of whether a company means it.
In 2012 we partnered with a local media outlet on a promotion: $50 tickets for a chance to win 29 ounces of gold. It created genuine excitement across the Valley, and between April and July it raised $250,000 for Children's Hospital of Central California.
Alongside the two big events, we sponsor and support causes across the San Joaquin Valley — together with our staff, customers and vendors:
Todd Madison noticed the Academic Decathlon one: "I am just one parent, with one involved student, but I could certainly see this was a special event, something they will remember long after high school. Thank you for what you do for our community."
There's a version of this industry that extracts from a community and gives nothing back — and it's why "pawn shop" carries the baggage it does. Steve Foster Jr. sits on the board of the California Pawnbrokers Association specifically to raise the professionalism and image of the industry.
You can't argue an image up. You can only behave your way there over forty-four years, in one town, where everybody knows where to find you.
That's not a metaphor — it's literally how the Golden Opportunity Event works. Ask us when it's running next.
