CVO Schools
Registration
First, we want to thank readers for spending time on our website. If there are any questions, we will appreciate it if readers can channel their questions via the schools to CVO Head Office.
The website should cover all possible questions. We prefer that Lucia work through all the questions. There might be similar questions coming in from different schools, and Lucia will then be able to answer them. (She will direct questions to our Board. Lucia represent CVO Schools on our Board)
There were two concerns/questions that CVO directors raised during our Board Meeting.
First Question, do supporters lose any benefits currently earned when they use for example Smart Shopper cards? The answer is NO. Participants use their Gift Cards as a payment method.
You will still swipe your loyalty cards and still receive points as per usual. You will still receive discounts as per usual. The only difference is that when you pay for your groceries, your do not use cash, debit or credit cards.
You give the cashier your gift-card and he/she will swipe the gift card to deduct the amount owed for your purchase from your card.
You can pay for any product or service the Retail stores sell. For example, you can pay for pre-paid electricity, airtime on behalf of cell phone networks, clothes, furniture, alcohol, cigarettes.
The gift card can be viewed as a savings card. If you load R1 000 onto a gift card, you can purchase small amounts on a daily basis. You do not need to use the entire R1 000 in one purchase. There are no banking fees applicable. So there is no cost when you purchase products or groceries from the retail store. Funds that you do not use this month, will remain on the card and you can use it the next month.
Second Question how will parents & shareholders load gift-cards?
Here, we need to explain in detail the process, so that readers understand the entire process.
The first thing we want to point out, is that Retail stores offer “Bulk Discount” on a sliding scale module. We list the different discounts offered to companies who can purchase gift-cards in bulk.
Bulk Discount rates:
Shoprite group: (view latest notification)
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R10 000 to R99 999 = 2%
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R100 000 to R499 999 = 3%
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R500 000 to R999 999 = 4%
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R1 million plus = 5%
Pick n Pay:
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R10 000 to R99 999 = 2,5%
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R100 000 to R499 999 = 3,5%
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R500 000 to R999 999 = 4,5%
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R1 million plus = 5,5%
Spar:
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R500 000 to R999 999 = 3%
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R1 million plus = 5%
Readers will notice that you actually need a large amount of South Africans to team-up in order to receive Bulk Discount. Spar for example only offer Bulk Discount on orders if the orders exceed R500 000.
Homecare cannot ask a “Shareholder” to purchase groceries from only one Retail store. There will be Shareholders who opt to purchase gift cards from all the retail options available, in order to purchase “specials” offered to the public by individual Retail Stores.
The Homecare team developed “Pre-Launch” technology that can manage the entire process. Remember, we work on other software “http://www.xtragroceries.co.za/” The website will soon be active. It is software that enable us to interact with gift-cards from all the retail stores, where millions of Gift-Cards can be processed without any human intervention. There is currently no system available that manage the process of gift-cards from all the retail stores in South Africa. (We intend to automate the process when a person need funds on different gift-cards from different retail stores.)
We also need to point out that the Gift-Card processes on a Retail level has been used for many years. It is just that they do not interact with one platform. If you use Spar Gift Cards, their system backed by Spar is being used for years. Pick n Pay has their own Gift-Card system, also being used for years.
It is only the Homecare Foundation's requirements to support large numbers of Gift-Cards, that created the need for special software we develop. Readers with more time on hand can read the following link: Xtragoreceries web services
What is the Benefits for larger retailers to work with us on the Gift-Card project?
There are numerous benefits, and we will discuss the major benefits so that readers will understand why we can built a support plan for bedridden patients on this partnership.
The major benefit is obviously that our project provide them the best method for collecting funds from customers. The cash-handling fees are extremely high. (Transport of cash to banks and the bank fees to actually bank cash into the company's bank account)
It also cost retail stores fees to collect funds from credit/debit cards. (Certain credit card companies ask large fees, often close to 5% of the transaction value) . There are also other role players such as Pretorium Trust, who also need to be taken into account. For retail stores, it is all about when they get funds into their bank accounts, and the cost based on collecting these funds. (If we are correct, Pretorium Trust only pay the funds of their clients over to retail stores 30 days after they collected the payments from their client base.)
The Homecare project is the best partner. We transfer large amounts via EFT directly into the Retail store's Head Office bank account. They have the funds of all the people even up to 30 days before groceries are purchased. (Most of the Gift-Card users purchase small amounts during the month, and not all in the beginning of the month)
Retail stores in general only pay their suppliers more than 60 days after receiving the goods. (Earning interest on other people's money is part of their business plan)
Retail companies in partnership don't need to rely on media to work with our client-base. We transfer money on behalf of people into their bank account. The only negative is that the card-user cannot withdraw the funds from the Gift-cards. They can only exchange the value of the cards with products or services provided by these companies. (You can not ask the cashier to give you cash or even change.) The result is that the retail company now has a fixed and more secure client base. They know that the client will visit the store during the month. If you want your money earmarked for groceries, you don't have any other option than to visit their stores.
For our shareholders, it is all about planning. You know that you will during the month spend "X" at for example Spar, "Y" at Shoprite and "Z" at Pick n Pay. It will only be for a short period where shareholders transfer their own funds onto Gift-Cards. In future, shareholders will receive funds onto their cards without paying funds.
We are also in our opinion the best business partner that Retail stores can wish for. We create the ability to bring in additional business for our Retail partners. We will play an important role in future, where we help prevent that funds are leaving our country within the tourism industry. These funds will all eventually end up in retail. The growth in the economy is important to all the Retail stores.
Many companies can perhaps help retail stores to load large amounts onto Gift-Cards, but most of them will then take the discount out of the Retail industry. The Homecare Foundation actually re-invest the discount into the retail industry by providing it to care takers of bedridden patients.
Current process to load funds onto Gift-Cards
At the moment, the software that is used, is backed by a manual process. This process for the next four months will be managed by the Homecare team and by CVO management.
We will for now, only order gift-card vouchers on the first Tuesday of the month. (The software will notify shareholders in advance about the schedules we will manage on behalf of the group. You will also receive constant reminders before closing of orders)
Shareholders, schools and CVO head office will be kept updated about the order process.
The Homecare team will only use our FNB bank account as a "Trust Account" to manage the orders. Lucia will participate on behalf of the CVO network in the order process.
Participants will be required to do an EFT payment of their individual orders into the FNB account and use their cell phone numbers as reference. (The software link gift cards to the person’s cell phone number, and the software will then pay the different food companies according to the registration list.)
The software will send you a receipt when your funds appear in the FNB account. The software will also send a report to the School about payments received from all the person’s linked to the school. CVO Head Office will receive a full report of all the parents, teachers linked to all the schools.
The orders will close on 12H00 on a specific date. Annelize van der Loo will then place orders of the amounts ordered per Retail store at the 3 Retail Head Offices. (Shoprite Group = Shoprite Head Office in Western Cape, Pick n Pay = Pick n Pay Head Office Western Cape, Spar = Spar Head Office Pinetown, Kwazulu-Natal).
The payments towards these 3 Head Offices will be done with immediate clearance on Tuesday afternoon, so that the funds will be in the different Head Office banking accounts by Wednesday morning. (Proof of the Head Office Payments will also be shared with each shareholder, schools etcetera via automated e-mail). The funds are now in Retail’s accounts and they take responsibility for your money until you purchased the entire amount loaded onto your cards.
The different groups have their own accounting teams who support the Homecare Foundation. The accountants will first verify if they received payments in their own bank accounts before they start the process to support shareholders.
We will now explain each retail store individually:
Shoprite group
With Shoprite, we order “Digital Vouchers” which is send to your phone. The vouchers are then at store level loaded onto plastic gift-cards.
The Shoprite platform work with only pre-determined voucher values. We can order digital vouchers from as little as R50 per voucher, but it is not cost effective to order such low values. You will on their existing platform not be able to order a digital voucher for R1 125. There is no sequence of digital vouchers on their systems to accommodate such a request.
The Homecare team is actually developing an automated process to help the Shoprite group in future. The objective is to be able to load for example R67,73 onto a gift-card. (We develop a system that will manage the reward/profit share of staff in the hospitality industry who will receive their share payouts via gift-cards. We will within months complete this development on “http://www.xtragroceries.co.za/”)
For now, we all work on the Pre-Launch software. This unfortunately limit our abilities. We can only support shareholders with fixed amounts that we can load onto Shoprite group gift cards.
Participants will be able to choose one of the following vouchers:
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R500.00
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R1,000.00
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R1,500.00
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R2,000.00
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R2,500.00
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R4,000.00
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R5,000.00
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R10,000.00
We will for example order 70 X R1 500 vouchers, and 23 X R2 000 vouchers.
The Shoprite IT team will send our server a list of unique numbers linked to these individual vouchers. Our software will then construct e-mails where we even convert vouchers into barcodes. Each participant who ordered a voucher will receive an e-mail with the voucher ordered and a barcode linnked to the voucher.
The shareholder will then use his/her phone when they want to transfer the digital voucher inside the Shoprite, Checkers or USave onto a plastic gift card. (The e-mails explain the process in detail)
The shareholder can then at a later stage link the Shoprite Gift Card number onto our platform. (You will receive an e-mail where you can manage all your gift-cards)
Pick n Pay
Pick n Pay offers actually the most convenient process. Participants go to their nearest Pick n Pay and collect a Gift-Card. (In our test phase during 2018 and 2019, there were Pick n Pay branches who did not hand out cards without the person putting a small amount on these cards. If your Pick n Pay do not want to just give you a Gift-Card, then load R20 onto it. It is anyway your own funds that you will use to purchase your own groceries)
Participants will receive an e-mail with a link where gift-cards can be managed. We ask participants to please type the 16 digits on the back of the Gift-Card into the form. These 16 digits will be used by Pick n Pay Head office when they load funds onto your card. The 16 digits is also linked to your cell-phone number.
Participants are also welcome to mail a photo of the gift-card to info@homecare.org.za. Please use your Cell phone number as reference.
The funds that participants pay into Homecare, to be transferred with the rest of the team towards Pick n Pay Head Office, will automatically be loaded onto the Gift Card.
Pick n Pay Head Office will notify the Homecare team as soon as all the cards in the order list has been loaded. We will then send you either an sms, or an e-mail notifying you that your card was loaded with the amount ordered. There is no need to do any administration inside Pick n Pay stores. You can just use the Gift-Card when you pay for items purchased. (Pick n Pay has a limitation of R5 000 per parent or Gift-Card per month. Families who require more than R5 000 are requested to please register both parents individually)
Spar
Spar is again different from the rest of the retail stores. Spar is franchised owned which make the process unique. Spar has two Gift Card structures. The one is “Store Only” and the other is a "National Gift Card". We use the National Gift Card.
The “Store Only” is a Gift Card that you can purchase inside the store, but the recipient of the Gift Card can only use it inside that specific store.
Spar Head Office is in control of the National Gift Cards. With such a Gift Card, you can purchase at any of the Spar stores Nationally. (With Pick n Pay, you can also purchase via their card at any Pick n Pay nationally and with Shoprite, the same card can be used at Checkers, Shoprite and USave branches nationally)
We will use the Spar National card. It is only during the first month, that we need to manage the process different from Pick n Pay. We need to streamline the process to get the National Spar Gift cards to participants.
What we decided was to order R1 000 gift cards for the first month. Spar Head Office will courier all the R1 000 Gift-cards to CVO Head Office in Pretoria. CVO Head Office will then courier the different number of cards to the schools where parents/teachers and supporters can collect these cards.
The participant can link the Gift Card to his/her profile via the e-mail platform or can also mail us the numbers if we need to link the card. Reference = cell phone number.
The following month, the participant can order the amount he she prefers to book at Spar.
Conclusion
The Homecare team only selected Retail Stores we trust, to participate in the Pre-Launch phase. We know that once we transferred the funds on behalf of all the "Pre-Launch" participants, that their money will be safe. These retail stores will protect the funds on behalf of all the parties involved.
We even provide services via the Pre-Launch software where "Shareholders" can notify us if they perhaps lost their Gift-Cards. The retail store will immediately be notified. The retail stores will also help people to transfer the amounts on the Lost cards onto new Gift-Cards.
How will funds be shared with "Shareholders" and schools?
This is another important point we want discuss in detail. We manage the project as if you are a “Shareholder”. But there is an important difference. The main difference is that “Shareholders” in general only receive dividends once a year, if the company can afford to pay out dividends.
In this project, we will share funds on a monthly basis with our “shareholders”. Schools and parents cannot wait a year for financial contributions. We must relief the cash-flow pressure within days/months.
We also manage the project in such a manner that irrespective of how much funds we can generate for “Social Work”, we have a fixed commitment towards our “Shareholders”. We position ourselves in such a way that we first need to pay out up to R2,5 million per month, towards the people who participated in the R2,5 million retail spending.
We need advanced software to manage the monthly financial reward process. Luckily, we develop technology to accomplish our goals. Each shareholder, depending on the category, will on a monthly basis share in the amount due to the group. The software will update shareholders as we grow into the Private Security section.
The monthly report will stipulate exactly how many phones are supported with Private Security support. We can then transfer R10 per app towards our “Shareholders” until we complete our commitments towards shareholders.
It all depends on how many Homecare friends we can engage to help us test the software. We will need 250 000 phone users to reward every phone user up to 100% of our commitment if we succeed with our aim to raise R2,5 million in retail spending. We do not expect this to be a challenge. We have more than 14,5 million smart phone users in South Africa. There are numerous services the Enjoy App will provide. (Remember that we focus on fast-food deals etcetera. We expect to support more than 1,2 million South Africans via the Enjoy SA phone app)
Funds payable to schools and CVO Head Office will be transferred on a monthly basis via EFT. This will include the contribution owed to schools plus the Schools fees owed by parents who participated in the project. The balance owed to “Shareholders” will be distributed via Gift-Cards to the individual “Shareholders”
We will now explain support per category:
Employee
Employees can register for any amount they prefer. Our commitment is to work towards a platform where the Employee will receive 100% of the amount they used in the pre-launch phase as a reward. We want schools to still keep up with the current salary, and if possible even to increase salaries where staff are under-paid.
Our goal is to help increase income for Employees. If you are in a position where your basic living costs are covered, and you do not need to use part of your salary for that, you will be blessed.
Our goal is to systematically load money for groceries onto the Employee’s gift cards. Eventually, what you have booked in the “Pre-Launch” phase, will be given to you by the Homecare team.
Employees who resign from the CVO schools will receive 50% of their Pledge Agreements. The balance will then be transferred to the CVO School where the staff member worked. The 50% benefit will remain intact for as long as the Homecare Foundation remains operational and the individual resides in South Africa. The benefit can unfortunately not be transferred to another person.
Friends of School
Friends of School network will receive 50% of their approved personal grocery spending via our platform. (Remember that the Homecare Foundation will systematically reduce the amounts we will take in on Pledge Agreements. People who act fast should receive adequate support). This will be a permanent arrangement, for as long as the person remains in South Africa. The benefit can unfortunately not be transferred to other people.
The School will receive 50% of the amounts used in the Pre-launch phase by the Friend of the School. CVO Head office will also receive a 25% on top of the amount pledged for Grocery Spending.
Parents
Parents will receive 50% of their approved personal grocery spending via our platform. (Remember that the Homecare Foundation will systematically reduce the amounts we will take in on Pledge Agreements. People who act fast should receive adequate support). There is one difference though. The 50% will be paid into the school’s bank account with the rest of the fees due to the school. Parents will receive a report as these fees must be deducted by the school from the school fees due by the parent.
There will be scenarios where the parent will receive more than what is due for school fees. In such cases, only the school fees will be paid over, and the balance due to the parent for profit share will be loaded onto Gift-Cards.
This will be a permanent arrangement, for as long as the person remains in South Africa. The benefit can unfortunately not be transferred to other people.
The School will receive 50% of the amounts used in the Pre-launch phase by the Friend of the School. CVO Head office will also receive a 25% on top of the amount pledged for Grocery Spending. (NB, Both parents can register individually)
Friends & Family of parent
Friends & Family of parents will eventually receive 50% of their approved personal grocery spending via our platform. (Remember that the Homecare Foundation will systematically reduce the amounts we will take in on Pledge Agreements. People who act fast should receive adequate support). We need to emphasize the following. The 50% will first be paid into the school’s bank account to help fund the children of the parent.
Please remember to capture the parent's cell phone number in on the field where we need to identify which parent you want to help. We need your own cell phone number when you register yourself with your e-mail address.
The parent’s children will eventually complete their school years and the funds will then be shared with friends and family of parents.
There will be scenarios where the parents get into financial positions where they no longer need assistance from friends or family to help the children. Parents will then notify us and we will then change the funding towards schools. Friends and Family will start to share the profit of the group. Up to 50% of the Grocery spending will then be loaded onto Gift-Cards of this group.
This will be a permanent arrangement, for as long as the person remains in South Africa. The benefit can unfortunately not be transferred to other people.
The School will receive 50% of the amounts used in the Pre-launch phase by the Friend of the School. CVO Head office will also receive a 25% on top of the amount pledged for Grocery Spending.
Principal / Chairman (Board of Education)
Lucia van Wyk asked if we can help the Schools where the school also purchase products from Retail stores, to help them with the Gift-Card module. This will help the CVO structure to secure a larger portion of the Retail target we opened.
Schools also need to purchase cleaning material and other products from Retail industry.
Management who wish to register their schools or Boarding Schools can register. (If management wish to register for personal grocery support, the person should register him/herself as an Employee, then do a separate registration for the school and use the Principal or Chairman option to identify that the registration is now for the School's cards.)
Management will note that they will need to use a separate e-mail address. (We recommend that the individual use his/her personal e-mail address to register as Employee, and use the school’s e-mail address to register the school)
The school will eventually receive 100% of the amount booked during the Pre-Launch period out of the Homecare Foundation project.
We know that it is Lock-down, and the schools might not need to load Gift-Cards within the next month or two. Schools are welcome to register now, so that we can block the required amounts out for them, until they will be operational again. (We will provide support when the Schools notify us)
Business owners who want to help the School
The Homecare team also received requests from parents who own their own businesses, to allow them so that they can support the schools better.
Business owners who wish to pay for business expenses (coffee, cleaning material, anything their business purchase in Retail), are also allowed to book a share certificate for their businesses.
The business will receive 50% of the retail spending out of the project and the nominated school will receive 50%. This will help schools to secure more funding out of the project within a shorter period.
Parents who are business owners should also use a separate e-mail address to register their businesses.
End
We want to thank readers for their valuable time.
Lucia asked us after she went through the Registration process what may be the most important question. Will I be able to change my orders during the “Pre-Launch” period?
Although everything is possible with technology, we must however explain that we prefer not to allow Shareholders to change any commitments during this period. (The XtraGroceries software will allow users to chop and change as they wish, but for now, we work with people on agreements that is based on a Shareholding scheme.)
Parents must rather commit a lower amount per Retail store and invite family and friends who can also “Pledge” smaller amounts to spend at retail stores of their choice. Rather plan to have a percentage of your grocery spending on Gift-Cards and pay the balance during the month via cash, debit/credit cards.
We work on a budget structure and both management teams (CVO and Homecare) must be able to act fast, should one of our “shareholders” not be able to act on their commitment.
We ask parents if they invite family and friends, to please be involved and communicate with them when we close orders for the month. If there is any family member or friend, who struggles, notify us so that we can find another South African to take over the agreement which we initially went into with the particular person. We suggest that you contact your network two weeks before we close the orders.
What we aim to do is to order exactly the same amount from retail per individual as the previous month. (This will be once we reached our
R8 million retail target)
When an individual fail to complete his/her order for a specific month, that amount in Retail spending will be transferred to another individual. Any shareholder can mail us if they intend to cancel their support. We will then notify the schools and other South Africans that we have an opening and the share option is now available for another individual. The Original Pledge Agreement will then be cancelled by the Homecare team.
Investment value arranged by CVO supporters for schools
Readers will notice on the report published on the right side of the screen that a small group of CVO supporters can create a HUGE investment value for the school network, simply by planning their personal grocery structures. The software calculates on a daily basis after Registrations have been approved, what investment value the different schools and the school network combined will need on a fixed Deposit Investment at ABSA bank with their highest interest rate of 5,70% (12 months).
We exclude the investment value that parents, employees, friends & families receive on their own reward modules. (You also need capital invested if you receive a benefit without paying for it)
List of Shareholders
We manage a register for “Shareholders” and readers are all welcome to view on the Shareholders Register list the individuals who completed the Registration process. (Please remember that the amount Pledged per individual is not a reflection on the person’s ability to support retail stores, it is just a conscious decision made by the individual to plan his/her grocery spending in such a manner that he/she will have other funds available to purchase products from perhaps other stores as well. Readers need to know who will all share in this project)
We hope that all the CVO supporters will join this important project. We give our commitment to do our best, so that CVO Schools will remain open for years to come.
The entire process to assist "Shareholders" is explained in e-mails. The first requirement is to register on our website.
Please, if you decide to “Register” load our contact details in your computer’s contact list. The software will send you a mail to first verify that you are not a computer. It is a requirement for the Poppi Act. We use MailChimp software for that purpose. You might not find the e-mail in your normal Inbox, and then you should look for the mail in your “Junk/Spam” folder. If Homecare is listed in your contacts, the software will always reach your normal “Inbox”
Contact Details:
Homecare Foundation
E-mail address: info@homecare.org.za
Thank you and May God Bless
The Homecare team
(Only friends & Family to fill in)
(Please add up the total you intend to book at retail stores)
Current limitations
None - Parents can invite family and friends and as a group book
R12 000 in retail.
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