10 years of IT4Kids – 10 things that make Jordy Kool proud

On 5 April 2023, IT4Kids will celebrate its 10th anniversary. It is a time for founder Jordy Kool to look back on all the great moments and reflect on the 10 things that he is most proud of. “Honestly, I do not know if I will be able to name ‘only’ 10 things that make me proud, because there are so many. But, if I have to name my highlights, this is what I am extremely proud of.”

  • All of the achievements made by IT4Kids team under the leadership of Colette Zee – not only in terms of growth, both in donations and income, but also in the further professionalisation of the foundation.

  • The volunteers from Infotheek who generously offered to help us in the beginning, a large group of whom are still involved with IT4Kids.

  • An ever‑growing group of Business Friends that support us, enabling us to reduce our dependence on the founders – Infotheek and myself – which will ensure that IT4Kids is also able to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

  • That IT4Kids is not the ‘Jordy Kool foundation’, but really IT4Kids, backed by a growing group of professionals, volunteers, donors, ambassadors, advisers and athletes. My ultimate goal is to simply be the person who founded the foundation and for others to be able to further build the foundation, as we have done in business.

  • Working together with the various charities and projects, which have made a huge impact. We have given thousands of children an opportunity to play sports, and the group that we support continues to grow.

  • The galas that we organise each year, where the focus is on having fun and not raising money – which always ends up happening nonetheless. The gala is meant to be a party that you want to return to every year with family, friends or colleagues. In short: an annual event that people look forward to. I believe that this is the case already!

  • Launching projects with our sports ambassadors. We are now able to work with these ambassadors to give back to the community, which means that athletes do not have to re‑invent the wheel and waste time and energy. Rather, we can act as a catalyst for change.

  • That large companies donate hardware to us and use us to select charities, but also that more individuals and families know how to find us for this purpose – proof that we are becoming the organisation we want to be:

    • the organisation that empowers athletes and helps to enable them to give something back to society;
    • the organisation that empowers families and individuals to donate money to charities through us and measures the impact, so that they know the money is put to good use;
    • the organisation that turns IT donations from companies into money, donates to charities, measures the impact and effectively sees to all aspects of the process.

  • The step we can now take with our foundation / private company, IT2Return, allowing us to implement in‑house processing for IT hardware – something that we have wanted to do from the beginning, but could not afford to at the time. As a result, we now have more net funds available to donate to charities and can provide more opportunities for children to play sports.

  • Our advisory board and board members, who dedicate their time to IT4Kids for free. But also family and friends who have committed themselves and selflessly helped us have touched and moved me in a positive way.
Tagged