Serious Request is a family of annual multi-day, multimedia fundraising events for International Red Cross initiatives, typically hosted by radio stations in the week before Christmas. The project was begun in 2004 by Dutch public pop music radio station 3FM. Serious Request projects have since been adopted in Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Kenya, South Korea, Austria, Latvia and Portugal.

Gerard Ekdom is a Dutch radio DJ formerly at the radio stations NPO Radio 2 and the 3FM. Programs he hosted include Arbeidsvitaminen between September 2001 and September 2010) on weekdays from 10:00 until 12:00 am, "Effe Ekdom" as well as the Friday evening show Ekstra Weekend, together with Michiel Veenstra.