Stanford Students Help Generate $3600 For Poverty In One Week Through Entrepreneurial Competition
Stanford CA, November 16, 2007 — Teams of entrepreneurial Stanford students gathered on campus yesterday for the closing ceremonies of the Gumball Challenge, a competition designed to raise awareness and funds for microfinance and piloting at five universities this month.
The forty participants spent one week creating value from kits of $27 microloans and 27 gumballs. By the end of the week, students from Stanford and St. Olaf had generated a combined $3600 to fund loans for the working poor in developing countries.
"We wanted to let students engage with microfinance in a short amount of time, with little resources," said Stanford Gumball Challenge President Jason Shen. "In turn, their revenue helps the working poor help themselves and their amilies."
Teams kept live updates of their progress on the Gumball Challenge website (www.gumballchallenge.org). Stanford freshman Travis Kiefer and his team attempted to challenge the Guinness World Record for the tallest tower constructed from quarters. "It was a great experience because everyone realized how much they can accomplish in just one week's time," said Kiefer. "We raised $470 plus some foreign currency-pocket change for social change!"
Proceeds from the Challenge at Stanford and St. Olaf go toward a fund for loans to poor entrepreneurs through Kiva.org, a non-profit peer-to-peer lending platform based in San Francisco.
"It was a great first time. We wanted people to break constraints and take that attitude to bigger future endeavors," said Gumball Capital co-founder Kalvin Wang. "Next we're publishing updated guidelines and what we learned so more organizations can run it again."
The Gumball Challenge is being piloted by Gumball Capital and its partner organizations during November, International Microfinance Month, at five campuses: Yale University, UC Berkeley, St. Olaf College, and Sewanee, University of the South.
Gumball Capital is a Stanford-based non-profit inspiring entrepreneurship for social change. For more information, please visit www.gumballcapital.org.
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