After completing his studies in business administration at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (specializing in marketing and business economics) he began his career as a marketing and strategic consultant. Next he worked for various publishing companies. As director of FHp Strategic Publishing in Amsterdam Kees-Jan Heijdra acquired his first experience with loyalty communication for charitable organizations, in the Netherlands as well as internationally.

These same charitable organizations were at the time searching for innovative ways to improve their fundraising techniques, because traditional ones resulted in an increasingly disproportionate cost/revenue relationship. This gave rise to the start of Streetwise in 2001 in the Netherlands. It began as an experiment, but has developed into a flourishing company.

“Over the last 7 years we have cultivated an innovative and unique formula for donor funds recruitment that has proven to be both highly effective and profitable to our clients. We offer a full range of services with clearly defined contractual agreements and a solid guarantee with regard to results and revenue creation.
As our approach has proven to be successful we want to expand our services internationally and thereby create more synergy four our clients.

Every aspect of the Streetwise organization is permeated with our central theme: ‘GROWTH’.
The people that work for us acquire an enormous amount of knowledge and experience. The organizations that engage Streetwise for their fundraising services have benefited by the growing number of new donors committed to their cause. This wave of growth has already enabled the acquisition of more than one hundred million Euros in new funds for our clients.
As a result of our success in the Netherlands, new markets have opened up and we are now positioned to operate on an international level.”

Mark Smakman has worked at Streetwise since 2002. He began as a recruiter while completing his studies in Economics and Business Administration. As recruiter-captain, he was responsible for SOS-Kinderdorpen, CARE and WWF. He then became a full time employee, starting as a location manager and later becoming regional manager for the South-West region of the Netherlands.

Starting in 2005, Mark spent the next 3 years with final responsibility for all donor recruiting aspects in the Netherlands; a year later doing the same in Germany. As of January 1, 2010 he will be leading the start-up team in Madrid.

“I am proud of the fact that my contributions have helped to make Streetwise the successful company that it is. Through our efforts, charitable organizations have been able to continue with their important work. Streetwise also is a company that gives young people a chance by allowing them the time to develop and reach their full potential. And most of all Streetwise offers a friendly working environment to all of its employees.”

Patricia Dankbaar began her financial career after completing her studies in business economics at HES School of Economics and Business in Amsterdam. From April 2000 until August 2007, she worked at Ahold N.V. She began as a senior assistant in Consolidation and Reporting, and then became Financial Analyst and Financial Controller. With almost 8 years of experience at Ahold, she not only witnessed enormous growth of the firm, but also saw fraud and reorganization take its course. Having come full circle it was time for a change. Streetwise came along and hit the bull’s eye.

“I started working at Streetwise as Financial Controller and am very satisfied. It is an enthusiastic team, a stimulating environment, offers me many challenges and is altogether a wonderful enterprise. Streetwise is a company to be proud of and every day I look forward to going to work!”

Doris Claßen is a real citizen of the world. She grew up in Holland and Germany. She has lived and worked in Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, the U.S.A. and Asia.

Doris Claßen has always had a great affinity towards charitable causes. She has been busy with different aspects of fundraising for a very long time. This is what led to her decision to leave a successful career in international business (by international legal firms and by the Sara Lee Corporation) and focus on the market in charitable causes. She has turned her hobby into her profession. Doris became International Relationship Manager for Streetwise in October 2007 and is responsible for our current and new clients.

“I expect to play an essential role in donor development for European charities as Streetwise pursues its prospects for further international expansion. I look forward to being involved in these terrific projects.”

Loes van Eijk has been working for Streetwise since 2004. After completing her studies in Media and Information Management at the Hogeschool of Amsterdam she began working as Marketing Coordinator from 2001 to 2004 for Factotum Media BV, a company active in the publishing business. In 2004 she came across Streetwise, and a match was made. Loes van Eijk began her career at Streetwise as a project manager and at the same time was responsible for marketing for Streetwise Netherlands. In January 2008 she took on the position of Manager Marketing and Business Development for the Streetwise Group.

“Since I started at Streetwise, the company has undergone enormous growth and development. We have expanded from 3 to 20 offices, gone from 5 to 32 clients, updated our internal processes, fine-tuned our recruitment methods and created new markets.
I am proud of what we have accomplished. But what I am most excited about is the unique Streetwise identity that has been carefully molded and fine-tuned over the last few years, and which has become the biggest attraction to both our clients as well as our staff. And with it we hope to convince the rest of Europe of our unique service.”

Annemarie Roozendaal is the Spanish connection for Streetwise and works as a relationships manager for the Spanish market. After having studied for one year at the Northern Illinois University in the USA she was positive she wanted to have an international carreer and that she probably would leave Holland again some day. She completed her study economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and started working as a marketing researcher at M&S Mode International. To get a broader experience and to be able to work on different projects and clients she moved over to an advertising agency. During her work at several advertising agencies she got a good experience in the field of charity organisations. After 7 years she made the move to Keesie, an agency specialised in youthmarketing. “I really liked the switch from more standard and regular advertising to very innovative creative concepts that really communicate with youngsters.” In october 2006 she moved to Spain to set up the spanish branch of Keesie in Barcelona, where she worked for clients like PepsiCo, BBVA and the Johan Cruijff Foundation. Annemarie is founder of BizcoB Network SL, an agency that helps companies to get to understand, to connect and to communicate with the new generation of young people.

“I always follow my heart and working at Streetwise feels like the perfect match in which I can combine my commercial experience as an entrepreneur in Spain, with all my experience on communication and youthmarketing ánd charity organisations. The people in Streetwise are open minded, sicere and active. They are all very involved in the growth of their clients and the company. I´m proud to be a part of this team and to help them with their international growthstrategy”.

Patty completed her studies in Business Mathematics in 1996. For her first job, she wrote a software application for contract administration for the Vitae Recruitment and Selection Bureau. She then worked for the next 8 years at the Academic Centre for Dentistry in Amsterdam as senior applications manager for the patient information system and as ICT consultant.

Starting in January 2009, Patty is the information manager for Streetwise. She is responsible for the intranet that keeps track of all donor and recruiter transactions as well as for all of the client reporting and management information.

“In my function as information manager, I am doing exactly what I like most: structured problem solving and making it possible for everyone to see improvements in their work. I also make sure that decisions can be made and processes adjusted based on accurate, up-to-date information both on a local and an international level. I think Streetwise is a great place to work. I can set up my own work schedule, have a good relationship with my fellow co-workers and most of all it is simply great to be at a company where people are motivated and heartily embrace their work. Each day, I enjoy my bike ride through the city of Amsterdam to get to my office.”

Lisette van Effrink studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and graduated in 2006. During her studies she took a course in development aid and worked for charitable causes ever since.

Lisette started her career at IDA Foundation as a Marketing Specialist. After a few years she decided to travel around the world. This gave her the opportunity to not only read and write about different cultures, but to actually experience them too. When she got back, she contacted Kees-Jan Heijdra (general director of Streetwise), for whom she worked several times before. There was a job opportunity to work as a Project Manager Information Management within Streetwise Group which she happily accepted.

“Streetwise gives me the opportunity to help non-profit organizations assuring their revenues from donors. I believe I can contribute on an international scale to charitable causes by helping Streetwise to become Europe’s number one player in the direct dialogue market.”