A L L guide

M B f o
GU

rO
th e

Cs
question:

how can we
make a sus-
tainable dif-
ference?
gumball challenge
executive summary

1 You get a $27 loan and 27 gumballs.

2 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.

3 You send your money back to the Gumball

Fund, which reinvests your profits in the pov-
erty alleviation organization of your choice.
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 manifesto
Blow 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 gumball
Ending 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 4:
Get the president or the administration behind it.
Make it a whole school event! Compete against
your rival school.

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

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

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.

PLANNING STAGE: 3 weeks BC

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
expectations
You 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 thinking
This 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?

2 Identify insights from the people you’ve talked to. De-

fine a “need space.”

3 Brainstorm. How can you fill that need space?

4 Come up with a quick plan or model. Probe it and see

if it works.

5 Refine– do more brainstorming and tightening! Set a

timeline and defined goals.

6 Define your product (your plan for the week) and your
story (why are you doing this?)

Teams can submit evidence of each step of this pro-

cess online to earn a Design Thinking badge, which
counts towards national prize eligibility.
 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.

brainstorming
INFO WEEK: 1 week BC
info 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.

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 Raised
Best Microfinance Advocate
Most Innovative Idea
Biggest Risk Taker
Most Sustainable Business Idea

NATIONAL PRIZES:
Most Epic
Biggest Microfinance Advocate
Biggest Social Innovator
Most Innovative Idea
Biggest Risk Taker
Most Sustainable Business Idea
CHALLENGE
where can you reinvest?
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. 

Here are some metrics to help you de-

cide where to send your profits:

OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL GRAMEEN FOUNDATION

http://www.opportunity.org
Provides 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.
http://www.grameemfoundation.org
Increases 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.
KIVA
http://www.kiva.org
Enables 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.
HEIFER INTERNATIONAL
http://www.heifer.org
Striving 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.
WOKAI
http://www.wokai.org
Focuses on China. Since its
founding in 2007, Wokai has in-
vested $300,000 through about
600 loans.
GUMBALL CAPITAL
http://www.gumballcapital.org
Empowering 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?