Jan Uek­er­mann: the fundrais­ing podcasts

Exhibited by
Jan Uekermann.
Added
June 12, 2012
Medium of Communication
Online
Target Audience
Individuals
Type of Charity
Unclassified
Country of Origin
Germany
Date of first appearance
2007

SOFII’s view

Somebody in SOFII’s office asked ‘why do you think this exhibit deserves to be on SOFII?’ The answer is easy. It’s unique, as far as we know. It’s open and unashamed sharing of helpful information. Its content focuses on issues that are relevant to the majority of fundraisers. And it’s easily copyable and we want to encourage others to copy it. In fact, as SOFII’s command of the German language is very limited, this is a necessity. But here, now, you can listen to Jan as he describes, in English, how he wants to encourage fundraisers the world over to spread the idea of fundraising podcasts.

Creator / originator

Jan Uekermann.

Summary / objectives

To share information on issues of interest with as many fundraisers as possible. Jan’s podcasts are in the German language but just for SOFII’s listeners he's recorded a special message in English, which you can listen to here. And if your linguistic skills are up to it you can check out the real thing on Jan’s site now on www.fundraising-aktiv.de.

Background

Jan studied fundraising at the German Fundraising Academy (www.fundraisingakademie.de), starting in 2002. Since this time, he was working with the organization UNSERE KLEINEN BRÜDER UND SCHWESTERN E.V. (Our little brothers and sisters) in Karlsruhe/Germany (www.nph.org). Before becoming a fundraiser Jan volunteered for the same organisation in Guatemala. They care for orphaned children in Latin America.

Jan is 26 years old (or rather, young!). In 2006 he became the head of UKBS’s department for fundraising from individuals, responsible for grant writing, major gifts, sponsorships, press releases, volunteers, foundation-funds, and legacies. They are a small group of five people. His main responsibility is major gift fundraising.

In 2007 Jan won a stipend (in fact it was the first fundraising-stipend in Germany) to do research on major gift fundraising in the US. He visited the USA twice, Phoenix and New York, met a lot of very interesting and successful fundraisers and visited a lot of great organisations. It was a very good opportunity for Jan to learn from fundraisers in the States.

Since 2006, Jan’s been working in a second part-time job on his own, as a fundraising speaker.

He says ‘I really love to train people on fundraising issues. I think there are a lot of speakers that are boring. However, I still love to hear good speakers, who come mainly from the UK or USA: their workshops and seminars are fundraising-tainment-shows. :-)’ 

Influence / impact

Not measured as yet, but could be considerable. As Jan says in his message above, the heart of fundraising is effective story-telling. and anyone can do it. Thanks to the Internet and podcasts, it's not difficult now to share these stories worldwide.

Merits

Fundraising podcasts are a great idea - others will take up the concept started by Jan.

Other relevant information

For more information go to Jan’s personal website (in German) www.fundraising-aktiv.de.

Jan Uekermann – ‘Fundraising shouldn't be boring’.
Click on the image of his site to see how he's putting his ideas into practice.