Gumball Capital

OC’s, in a nutshell, are responsible for setting up, recruiting, and running a Challenge. They are in charge of advertising; recruiting judges, sponsors, members, teams; disbursing loans and collecting post-Challenge proceeds; and distributing awards and prizes. Gumball Challenge HQ will send each OC gumballs and a Starter Kit, along with enough money to cover the $27 loan per CT.

Sound Intimidating?

Don’t worry! We have built tools internally to help you manage all of the things you need to do. There are easy ways to send us messages, view checklists of what needs to be done, access templates, and communicate online. To start an OC, you must have at least two members to serve as the team captain and loan officer, lots of passion, and simply clicking to start a Challenge below. Please note, additional members are recommended to help with events, marketing, and fundraising tasks!

All right, let’s get started!

Click here to start an OC at your school and gain access to the instruction materials and tools that will help you plan your Challenge!

The Gumball Challenge is ultimately about empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs, across campuses around the country. In addition to learning about the power of a microfinance, The Challenge is designed to both inspire and reveal the ingenuity within each student, or Gumballer. The gumballers are the actual competitors of the Challenge. Leading up to, and driving right through the competition, they will form CTs and execute amazing ideas.

What do the CTs do, exactly?

That depends entirely on the team. The idea is to develop an entrepreneurial business model within 10 days, with only a $27 loan (supplied by your OC). Each CT is at complete liberty to design and implement its own entrepreneurial endeavors. Whether those endeavors take on a purely business stand, or involve a charitable mission, or some combination of the two, it’s entirely up to you!

Why should I compete?

The simplicity of it. No 20-page Business Plan. No two-month application process. Just you, $27, 10 days, and your genius ideas.

There’s also the added bonus of knowing that the money you raise during The Challenge goes to The Gumball Fund, and in turn to low-income entrepreneurs around the world. Or, you can direct those funds to your own charitable cause.

Oh, and did we mention you get 27 gumballs?

Results of the Gumball Challenge

The first Gumball Challenge was run at 5 colleges in Fall of 2007 – including Berkeley, St. Olaf, Sewanee, Yale and Stanford. Student teams sold t-shirts, asked students to pay to “Guess the Number of Gumballs”, sold and delivered In-n-Out burgers, sold hand-crafted beaded bracelets, auctioned off dates with their RAs and much more. One group even attempted to raise the tallest tower of quarters, actually reaching 11-feet with over $470 in quarters.

In total all the teams raised over $2600 dollars, received tons of cool prizes – like a lunch date with Jessica Flannery (President of Kiva) and a Fraiche fro-yo party – and distributed over 140 new microloans.

How do I get started?

Simply click here to get started. Your OC will contact you with further details, assign specific tasks as necessary, and simply be in contact with you at all times if you need help.

Gumball Capital, a nonprofit started by Stanford students in February of 2007, presents the Gumball Challenge. If you want to learn more about us, simply visit our primary website – Gumball Capital

The Gumball Challenge is a 10-day entrepreneurial benefit competition. Practicing the concept of micro-finance, teams are given a $27 loan and have the duration of the challenge to generate as much revenue as possible. To compete, teams come up with creative and innovative ways to grow the small sum of money they are given by the end of the 10-day period. No 20-page Business Plan, no two-month application process, just a team, $27, 10 days, and your genius ideas. In its first year, the Challenge was run at 5 schools and raised over $2600! Think you can beat that?

Gumball Challenge precedes go to a permanent fund that makes micro-loans through Kiva, Wokai, and other microfinance related organizations. As loan installments are repaid, the capital is lent out again. If you want to read more about whom we’ve funded, check out our Gumball Fund.

Yes! The Gumball Challenge is about inspiring entrepreneurs to realize their OWN dreams and ambitions. If you want to compete in The Challenge to raise awareness and/or funds for your own social cause, by all means! We just hope you understand the value and power of microfinance at the same time.

The Challenge can be open to any age group! We are currently focused on encouraging students in college, high school, middle school, and even elementary school to bring the competition to their schools, clubs, and communities. However, the challenge could easily be implemented as a friendly and unifying work-place competition to raise money for a favorite social organization or fund.

The Gumball Challenge is running at various times in the fall and spring. If you want to compete, ask your local Organization Committee (OC) for more details. If there isn’t an OC in your intended community, start one!

We provide each OC a Starter Kit, gumballs, $27 “micro loan” for each of their CTs, and access to our online tools, which include checklists, templates, and internal messaging.

Yes! OC members are free to organize the Challenge, and compete as well. However, we do request that an OC not initiate its “competitor” activities until the week of the Challenge. Also, we ask that the OC Captain and Loan Officer not compete, due to time and conflict of interest issues.

It’s the idea of a gumball machine: you put in a small amount of money (say, a quarter) and a gumball rolls out (of poverty, perhaps). In the process, other gumballs move closer to the exit chute. In the same way, microfinance empowers individuals to lift themselves out of poverty, and can help those around them by opening employment opportunities or new services.

We’re glad you asked! (Everybody does; that’s the point.) In 1976, Muhammad Yunus lent $27 to 42 poor workingwomen in Bangladesh. He later started the Grameen Bank, which has now loaned billions of dollars to over 5 million poor women. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their “efforts to create economic & social development from below.” The challenge celebrates Yunus’s example throughout the competition by decidedly loaning teams $27.

Microfinance is is the practice of providing financial services to poor people. It may include services such as loans, savings, and insurance.