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In our brand new mini-series ‘Faces behind Face This’, we’d like to give you a behind the scenes look into our small and humble organisation. We kick off with Camiel Mulders who just joined Face This as our Head of Fundraising & Sponsorships. How a 14 year old bodyboarder ended up as a sales director of WeTransfer, went to Bali/Lombok for his honeymoon and now joined the Face This family. ‘I hope my sales experience will help Face This to grow internationally.’
‘This Lombok sweater made by Supermundane and Hafiz is my favourite Face This item. It reminds me of the good vibes and great food in Lombok.’
At Face This we work with a very small team. For a long time we even didn’t have any volunteers. But since a couple of years this is slowly changing. And as we will be focusing to grow internationally within the coming years, this feels as the right step to take. With ‘Faces behind Face This’ we want to give you an insight into the people who help our organization grow.
A common love for Indonesia
As you’ll learn within the coming weeks, when we publish more ‘Faces behind Face This’ stories, you’ll see that we all have a common love for Indonesia. Take our new family member Camiel Mulders for example. ‘In 2013 I went to Bali and Lombok for my honeymoon trip. Indonesia was on my bucket list for a while and we’ve really enjoyed the good vibes, the food and the people,’ explains Camiel. Is he missing the delicious food since then? ‘Indonesian food is by far my favorite food and therefore I’m lucky to live in the biggest Indonesian city of The Netherlands (The Hague),’ smiles Camiel.
Surfing
Just like Gia, Camiel has a passion for surfing. He caught waves in Portugal, Brazil, Australia and of course Indonesia. But it all started with a body board. Camiel: ‘I started bodyboarding when I was 14 back in 1995. I grew up near the Dutch surf capital (Scheveningen) and when I was 17 we went to Biarritz (France) every summer for the following years. In 2005 I went to Costa Rica and Panama where I first learned surfing. I’m still not a natural born talent and more of a ’nice weather surfer’, but never too old to learn haha. In Indonesia I surfed in Bingin, Padang Padang and Kuta and in Lombok I went to Gerupuk (near Kuta), which was a surreal experience as I was dropped on a reef by a long tail boat when it started raining cats and dogs and all other surfers returned back to shore by boat:).’
WeTransfer
Camiel has an impressive track record. And one thing that really stands out is his 7 year gig at WeTransfer, the first big file transfer service that became one of the biggest tech brands from the Netherlands. ‘I joined WeTransfer on the 1st of February 2011 as their first employee on the payroll, after I was previously asked to help setting up their advertising business model at the adtech company I worked for. My role changed from establishing the local ad-sales to the international ad-sales and business development with a massive increase in ad revenue 7 years later. It has been a blast to experience all the ups and downs we’ve had, from nearly bankruptcy to profitability and raising notable investments. The media industry is one of the coolest industries to work in, but also opened my eyes about what else is out there and what the real meaning of life entails.’
Helping companies with a responsible mission
After he successfully set up the business model of WeTransfer Camiel decided to set up his own growth agency. Their mission is to digitize, scale-up and increase the level of impact within the (Dutch) SMB market, by helping companies with a responsible mission. Camiel explains: ‘Since 2018 I’m the founder of Growth Collective, a business development consultancy firm which advises frontrunners within the impact economy with all sorts of commercial challenges. Growth Collective has helped organizations and entrepreneurs to create sales strategies, sales- & account-planning, nurturing plans, prospecting and acquisition plans and fundraising activities. Our focus markets include Tech for Good, Creative, NGO’s.’
Face This’ next stage of growth
Recently, Camiel joined the Face This team as the Head of Fundraising & Sponsorships. It’s for the first time we have one person dedicated to working on this. And we feel very fortunate about Camiel being this very person. Fortunately, Camiel is as thrilled as we are. ‘I’m really excited to help Face This to accelerate to the next stage of growth. Face This has done an amazing job in getting exposure from big Dutch influencers and even from the 11x World Champion Pro Surfer Kelly Slater and American actor/singer Jack Black. Social marketing however is not my specialty, but I hope my sales experience will help the organization to grow internationally and scale-up by setting up partnerships and sponsorships with companies that align with Face This’ brand values,’ says Camiel.
Desirable fashion items
The corona pandemic affected Camiel’s personal growth as an independent sales consultant and he didn’t want to sit back and wait for opportunities to rise. ‘Face This really fits with my personal interests of establishing an apparel brand with all proceeds devoted to a good cause. I’m interested to learn if we’re able to massively grow as a non-profit organization, without using the traditional means of income like door-to-door sales, telemarketing and fundraising events. The value proposition of Face This is very unique, being a non-profit organization which connects the creative industry with schoolkids and together actually being able to make desirable fashion items. Therefore I’m convinced that my commercial experience will help Face This to scale up as a non profit organization. With the appointment of Head of fundraising & sponsorship I hope we can continue to build on the legacy together and further internationalize to substantially increase positive impact in Indonesia.’
Your organisation x Face This?
At Face This we creatively empower Indonesian school kids by letting them collab with (street)artists from all over the world. Together they design T-shirts and with the proceeds we are able to support their education. Do you like what we do? And does your organization want to collab or support us? Then drop Camiel a line at camiel@facethis.org.
