Jake Versluis is Incubus' Make Yourself Foundation Cause Guru.
Jake Versluis has been working with Incubus since 2003, heading up their Make Yourself Foundation. Talk about dream job! Jake is their go-to guy for coordinating all of the meet and greets for the charity winners, and has seen the first hand impact the band and their foundation has made on the world. This week I was lucky enough to be able to chat with Jake, who gave me the inside scoop on the band’s favorite charities, how fans respond to the band’s focus on philanthropy, and my most burning question: whether or not the band has a hard time giving up any of the cool stuff they donate!
While Jake says there are a few charities that are close to the band’s heart, they really makes an effort to help as many as they can. “Growing up in Calabasas and being surfers, the band has always been fans of Surfrider Foundation. Also, the band has a personal connection to Life Rolls On (now a part of the Christopher Reeve Foundation), and Incubus tries to help them out whenever possible. But MYF has assisted over 50 charities in one way or the other during the last five years, and they’re all important in one way or another.”
As you’ve seen, the band gives up off some pretty sweet goodies for their charity auctions. Do you think they ever have a hard time giving this stuff up? According to Jake, they sure do! He says, “Our most recent auction we were able to auction off some of DJ Kilmore’s hockey jerseys that were awarded to the band on their 2004 tour. In 2005 when I asked the band members if we could auction the hockey jerseys the whole band said yes, except for Kilmore! But four years later for the MYF post-tour auction he was finally ready to part with the jerseys.”
When Incubus donated some money to the Cheshire Project so they could buy a bus to transport their campers around. They bought a bus for $10,000, they fixed it up and named it the "Incu-BUS"!
Jake has some pretty high hopes for the future of the entertainment industry and charity. In fact, the response from fans has been so overwhelmingly positive, it would be hard not to! He tells me, “The response has been so great that I personally feel it’s only a matter of time before all bands that have had some level of success in the music industry decide they need to start a foundation and give back to the fans and to the world as a whole.”
Excuse me for the Fangirl moment, but honestly, could these guys get any cooler!? I don’t think it’s possible.
Speaking of Incubus being cool, this is your absolute LAST chance to FOLLOW US ON TWITTER for your chance to win tickets to see Incubus Guitarist Mike Einziger play this Saturday at the Disney Hall in LA! We’ll be picking the winner in just a few hours, so watch our tweets closely! 
