the

GUMBALL guide for OC

s

question:

how can we make a sus-tainable dif-ference?

1

2

3

You get a $27 loan and 27 gumballs.

You come up with a 1-week entrepreneurial venture using the $27 (and the gumballs, if you feel so inclined) and turn your loan mon-ey into more money.

You send your money back to the Gumball Fund, which reinvests your profits in the pov-erty alleviation organization of your choice.

gumball challenge executive summary

table of contents

Gumball Capital Overview 6

Story of the Gumball 7

Types of Challenges 8

Detailed Guide to the Challenge 9

Expectations for Challenge Leaders 12

International Challenge Information 14

Design Thinking 15

Brainstorming 16

How to Run an Info Session; Prizes 17

Where Can Your Teams Reinvest? 19

Sample Write-Up 21

gumball capital:+ engages young people in entrepreneurship + provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to ap-ply their skills to social good + raises money for poverty alleviation through entrepreneurial ventures

With Gumball Capital’s Gumball Challenge…

1. You get 1 week, $27, 27 gumballs to flex your entre-preneurial muscles for a good cause.

2, You personally experience microfinance: you are given a small loan, and make money to give other small loans to people who have limited access to start-up capital to grow their businesses and enhance their communities.

3. You become a member of an international 50+ school network of entrepreneurs that has raised over $28,000 for poverty alleviation.

gumball manifestoBlow bubbles Succeed by having fun and being yourself: ener-getic, young, intent on spreading excitement about entrepre-neurship and poverty alleviation.

Celebrate every quarter Appreciate contributions of any kind, ac-tively. Everyone’s busy; metaphorical quarters mean a lot. It’s 25 cents extra, not 75 cents short.

Break the glass Risk it. Don’t wait for permission to try something new. Err on the side of action. Caveat: don’t be unethical.

Flatten spheres into circles Minimize hierarchy. Eliminate unneces-sary restrictions. Use round tables. Communicate from the same plane, not a higher one.

Fit it on a Post-It Tighten it. Short attention spans! Break sparingly.

Share some sugar Recognize the power of stories and symbols. Mohammed Yunus lent $27 to 42 women in 1976. We’ve raised $28,000 in 3 years. Stories inspire!

Pop the ego Realize we’re only 1” in diameter. Microfinance isn’t a panacea. We don’t think of ourselves as changing the world. We’re just making it a bit chewier.

Remember to brush Stay fresh. Chewing gets tiring. Cavities hap-pen. Jaws dislocate. To prevent burnout, we leave everyone time for life.

the story of the gumballEnding poverty is like a gumball machine: helping one gumball out makes ev-eryone else closer to the exit.

Gumballs are flexible: they can be balls or they can be bubbles. The Chal-lenge turns creative, passionate stu-dents into entrepreneurs tackling the world’s toughest problems.

Entrepreneurship is like a gumball ma-chine: you need a little capital to get start-ed. You have to have a machine: a good team. You have to dispense gumballs without jams: the excellent execution of your idea. You have to have gumballs: a really, good, chewy idea that everyone loves and leaves people wanting more.

a brief history:Gumball Capital started in February 2007 at Stanford University by a stu-dent who happened to have 25,000 extra gumballs in his dorm room.

We figured out a way to raise money with gumballs and a little cash, and got to work. We incorporated over the summer of 2008 and created the Gumball Challenge, running the competition at five schools in 2008 and 2009. In 2009-10, we were rec-ognized in several competitions, re-ceived 501(c)3 tax-deductibility status, and ran the Challenge at 15 schools including a pilot of the Challenge at several high schools and one Chal-lenge in Beijing.

This year, we’re going for 50 schools and adding South America, Europe, and India to the list.

LEVEL 1: You and a bunch of friends or dorm mates run the Challenge.

LEVEL 2: Find a student group (such as a business club, entrepreneurship club, student government) and make five teams.

LEVEL 3: Find 3-4 student groups and have 10-15 teams compete. Solicit proposals ahead of time. You can: pick your teams based on their ideas. Make it a case competition! Offer a big prize, get cor-porate sponsors and judges.

LEVEL 4: Get the president or the administration behind it. Make it a whole school event! Compete against your rival school.

question:what kind of challenge do you want to run?

question:how exactly do you run the challenge you picked?

ANSWER:

The next page is a guide to running the Challenge. The structure presented works best for Level 2 and 3 Challenges. Level 1 will take less planning, and Lev-el 4 more. Adapt as necessary! We can help you tailor this plan.

PLANNING STAGE: 4-6 weeks before the challenge

PLANNING STAGE: 3 weeks BC

Decide what kind of Challenge to run (see pg. 8).Do the necessary legwork: Get administrators, dorm-mates, teachers, student groups and leaders of stu-dent groups on board. Set a date for the Challenge.Find judges for the closing ceremony.Find prizes for the 5 categories for the closing cer-emony.Be in contact with a Gumball Capital liaison.

Continue the above. Are you soliciting proposals? Now is the time to have them due. Approve them by start of 2 Weeks BC.

PLANNING STAGE: 3 weeks BC

Massive ad campaign to recruit interested people!

INFO WEEK: 1 week BC

Hold info session/first brainstorming session.Have teams register and fill out the Info Form and send to your Gumball Capital liaison. Encourage entries into the brainstorming competition.We’ll get back to you with any changes 3 days BC.

CHALLENGE

1 Day BC: Kick-off Session! Give teams their money! Make sure all teams fill out Gumball Proposal online to be eligible for the loan. Have teams give 1 minute mini-idea presentations. Record and upload.

Day 1: Hit the ground running. Encourage teams to up-date website daily.Day 2-6: Make sure you are in constant communication with teams and know what is going on. Encourage web updates. Try to get some local press!

Day 7: Closing Ceremony Have a half-hour before the closing ceremo- ny where teams drop off their counted money. Have all the judges and prizes ready. Have teams give short presentations. Video tape them and upload them to the GC website. Pick winners!

LAST THING: The day after the Challenge ends, send us the money. Send us a 1-page, pretty summary of your school’s Challenge. Find someone to run the Challenge next year! And celebrate!

PLANNING STAGE: 4-6 weeks BC

expectationsYou run the Challenge.+ If you say yes, you’ll get us some teams. You’ll plan to the best of your ability and get your school and students excited and doing the Challenge to the best of their abil-ity.

+ You’ll promptly return the loans and profits to Gumball Capital for reinvestment.

+ You’ll do your best to line up local prizes and judges.

+ Update the world on your Gumball shenanigans, with text, photo, and video updates on the Gumball website. Specifically: Video 1 minute pitches at the Kick Off and final presentations at the Closing Ceremony.

+ Send us a 1 page, brochure-quality summary of your school’s challenge.

+ Follow the Gumball Manifesto. Have fun.

+ Keep in touch with your Gumball Capital liaison.

* Think big. Go for crazy expectations.

note:we help you run the challenge

We are here. Email us any time.We’ll give you info session slides and marketing ma-terials.We line up pretty awesome national prizes.We provide you with an online network of other Gumball entrepreneurs. We’ll have fun and think big, too.

running an international challenge?

We pair you with a Gumball liaison. We’ll work closely with you to help your Challenge run smoothly.

We’ll set up a short memorandum of understanding to ensure we all know what is going on.

We understand $27 is not the same value everywhere. We’ll work with you to determine an appropriate loan size.

It costs a lot to ship gumballs and T-shirts internationally. If you would like Gumballs and T-shirts, we ask that you cover shipping costs from the profits of your Challenge, from another source, or obtain your own.

International Gumball Challenges have a great deal of flexibility. Talk with us to figure out the best way to run your International Challenge.

We can connect you with previous International Coordinators.International Challenges are just as eligible for the national prizes as any other school.

design thinkingThis will help the teams out, but it will also help you:

1 Ethnography: Talk to people. Find out what they need. How can you help your community?

Identify insights from the people you’ve talked to. De-fine a “need space.”2Brainstorm. How can you fill that need space?3Come up with a quick plan or model. Probe it and see if it works.4Refine– do more brainstorming and tightening! Set a timeline and defined goals.5Define your product (your plan for the week) and your story (why are you doing this?)6

Teams can submit evidence of each step of this pro-cess online to earn a Design Thinking badge, which counts towards national prize eligibility.

design thinking

brainstorming

Ask a question: How might we […]?

Set a time limit.

Defer judgment. You’ll have plenty of time to critique lat-er. Right now, all ideas are a go.

Encourage wild ideas. Often, the craziest, most unwork-able ideas lead to the most innovate, feasible ones.

Build on others’ ideas. A triple layer cake is better than a one layer cake.

Stay focused on the topic. Save other stuff for your next brainstorm.

Be visual– draw, don’t write your ideas.

Focus on one conversation at a time. Focus. Focus.

Go for quantity. Get enough ideas out there, you’ll find The One.

Repeat! When you are done with your first brainstorm, pick an idea or subject and ask a new question, and do a new brainstorm.

Teams can submit photos of their brainstorm, display-ing their ideas, on the website to enter the brainstorm-ing competition. Winners win an extra $27 loan.

INFO WEEK: 1 week BCinfo session: what to say?

CHECK OUT THE SLIDES AT WWW.GUMBALLCAPITAL.ORG.

HIGHLIGHT:Think big. Set really high, even crazy expectations.

Teams have 1 week from the Info Session to Brainstorm. + They can submit their brainstorming photos to the website and be eligible to win an extra $27 loan for the best brainstorm pictures.+ Teams can submit evidence of each step of Design Thinking for a badge, which helps towards national priz-es.+ Teams have 1 week to implement their idea when the Challenge starts.+ No using outside capital.+ Iterate! Try a small thing the first day and use your profits for the next day, and so on!+ Or, plan a biggie. Using only $27. You can do it.

Describe Gumball Capital and the history of the Challenge.

Make sure teams know WHY they are doing this.

Describe donation options.

info session: what to say?Pick some videos from the GC site and show them.

Encourage website updates and videos. Updates in-crease National Prize eligibility.

LOCAL PRIZES:Most Money RaisedBest Microfinance AdvocateMost Innovative IdeaBiggest Risk TakerMost Sustainable Business Idea

NATIONAL PRIZES:Most EpicBiggest Microfinance AdvocateBiggest Social InnovatorMost Innovative IdeaBiggest Risk TakerMost Sustainable Business Idea

CHALLENGEwhere can you reinvest?

Here are some metrics to help you de-cide where to send your profits:

The profits of your Challenge entrepreneurship benefit others. Pick an institution that helps alleviate poverty or promote entrepreneurship in places that need it. Your energy and creativity will lift like-minded people out of the chains of poverty.

GRAMEEN FOUNDATIONhttp://www.grameemfoundation.orgIncreases access to microfi-nance and technology services in low-income communities. Grameen has helped generate about 1 million microloans and distributed $160 million to sup-port microfinance programs in 13 countries.

OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONALhttp://www.opportunity.orgProvides small business loans, savings, insurance and train-ing to over two million people working their way out of poverty in the developing world. Clients in more than 20 countries can use these services to expand a business, provide for their fami-lies, create jobs for their neigh-bors and build a safety net for the future.

where can you reinvest?

HEIFER INTERNATIONALhttp://www.heifer.orgStriving towards hunger allevia-tion by providing low-income families with animals, from which they can reap subsequent eco-nomic benefits. Heifer empha-sizes “passing on the gift,” shar-ing offspring or animal products with the community. Heifer has been named one of the most trustworthy non-profits.

KIVAhttp://www.kiva.orgEnables people to contribute online to microloans to en-trepreneurs across the world. Since 2005, Almost $2 million dollars have been lent to about 500,000 entrepreneurs in 57 countries.

WOKAIhttp://www.wokai.orgFocuses on China. Since its founding in 2007, Wokai has in-vested $300,000 through about 600 loans.

GUMBALL CAPITALhttp://www.gumballcapital.orgEmpowering young entrepre-neurs all over the globe and raising money to support micro-finance institutions. Donating to Gumball Capital helps spread the message of social entre-preneurship and poverty alle-viation. Your donation will help kick off a Challenge at anoth-er school, be reinvested back into Gumball Capital to help us grow, or invested in one of the above organizations through our Gumball fund.

We know people are passionate about different things and if you want to reinvest your profits at a great organization that works towards poverty alleviation, send us an email at info@gumballcapital.org and we’ll make sure it fits the mission!

CHALLENGE sample write-up

question:

how can we change the

world?

sample write-up