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In our second installment of our mini-series ‘Faces of Face This’, we introduce you to Arjan Klompe. As a treasurer+ he’s not only taking care of our figures: he is also involved in our overall strategy and business development. Or ‘developing new initiatives and seizing opportunities,’ how Arjan likes to describe it. The senior manager of PwC is a force we can count on since 2018 and with this new ‘Faces of Face This’ episode we’d like to introduce him to you.
When setting up and running a cause like ours, transparency is key. Therefore we’ve asked a senior financial professional to take care of our figures. ‘We are so proud and excited that Arjan joined the Face This family three years ago, because we just know that our financials are always up to date,’ says Jos van der Hoek, founder of Face This.
Pile of Face This T-shirts
Arjan is part of the Face This family for three years now. But he got introduced to us, many years before that. ‘Yeah, I got to know Face This about 10 years ago through my brother Pieter, who had known Jos for a number of years as a neighbor and a friend. Pieter also worked with Face This at festivals on behalf of his event company Jolly Booth. The concept of Face This appealed to me immediately, because how nice it is to help children on the other side of the world to get an education and receive a homemade shirt in return! I love the approach of Face This to put the children themselves at the center of the project and to use their creativity to create a positive image! And the designs for the t-shirts are beautiful too, so I already have a pile of them in my closet.
Favorite Face This T-shirt
‘My favorite Face This T-shirt is the one designed by surfer girl Gia (12). Her story really appeals to me. Gia is a student from the earthquake affected town of Senggigi on Lombok. Despite all the adversity, she gets a lot of energy from her favorite hobby surfing and loves to watch the sea and the sunset. She has the ambition to become an English teacher because speaking the English language gives her so many more opportunities for the future and that is what she wants for all the other (future) school children. How nice!’ Watch Gia’s story in below video:
Growth potential
Finding talent is always hard. Especially financial people with a proven track record. The idea of joining Face This as a treasurer was something Arjan liked immediately, but we had to promise him one thing. Arjan: ‘When three years ago, Jos was looking for a new financial man for Face This, I said ‘yes’. But on one condition, namely that I was not only needed to compile the financial statements. I would also like to think along strategically because I believe that there is still so much growth potential for Face This.’
Strong entrepreneurship
Arjan is a real legend when it comes to numbers and figures. Therefore, it’s no coincidence he’s working at PwC for two decades now. ‘I have been working in corporate financial services for 20 years and have been working for the same employer, PwC, since the beginning of my career. In those 20 years I have had many different jobs. I started as an auditor and later, after studying tax economics, I ended up in the tax practice. I now assist and advise companies in improving their entire financial function. However, with a focus on private business companies, which are companies where the entrepreneur himself is the owner of the company. What I like about this segment is the presence of strong entrepreneurship. It is precisely this entrepreneurship that I like so much about my role at Face This: developing new initiatives and seizing opportunities. And then also with a very nice cause!’
Maximising potential
Thanks to Arjan, PwC is donating a program to Face This. Arjan explains: ‘What I really appreciate from my employer is that PwC supports our foundation Face This. We receive an annual donation because I spend part of my free time doing volunteer work. This program is known as ‘What Matters 2U’ and encourages colleagues to become socially involved. So, very nice for our foundation! But even better is the fact that this year we will also receive assistance from a team of PwC consultants to further professionalize our foundation. We want to make this professionalization, because we have the ambition to grow with Face This to a turnover of € 200.000 within 5 years. In this way we can help even more Indonesian schools to improve their education. We are receiving this assistance from PwC, within the framework of the program ‘Maximising Potential’. This program focuses on social enterprises, in which PwC helps with questions that fit with the knowledge, expertise and the clients of PwC.’
Generating multiple sources of income
Besides being a treasurer at Face This, Arjan is also involved in more organizational and strategic kinds of projects. Arjan explains: ‘Besides our core activity selling T-shirts through our website, facebook and instagram, we are currently working on generating multiple sources of income for Face This. For example, at the end of 2019, we set up two plans: a schools project and a sponsorship project.’
The schools project involves presenting Face This’ story in Dutch elementary schools and connecting their pupils with Indonesian school children. ‘We believe that it is very educational and useful for Dutch school children to see up close how Indonesian school children are taught. But above all, to see the drive of these school children to strive for a better world under difficult circumstances. Besides the connecting element, it also benefits the Face This Foundation. Because in our program, the Dutch schoolchildren get to design their own T-shirts, which they can buy and even sell to friends and families. All proceeds will support Indonesian schools in need. We started at an elementary school in Scheveningen, but unfortunately this project is currently stopped by corona, but as soon as the schools reopen, we will continue,’ says Arjan.
‘The sponsorship project is still in its infancy. Ultimately our goal is to share the sympathetic story of Face this Foundation with companies who are looking for partners within the framework of Social Responsibility. We would like to engage a number of sponsors in the coming years.’
