Charity Weekend at Stanford Graduate School of Business

What do you get when you put together 1,500 MBA students, 25 sports and games, five meals and one winner? Challenge for Charity aka C4C.

Hypothesis aside, this event brings together talent, energy and the resources of MBA students across nine business schools on the West Coast to compete in fundraising, volunteering and athletic events.

What is C4C?

Since its inception at Stanford University in 1984, C4C has come a long way and can now boast active working groups at eight other business schools on the West Coast.

Over the past fourteen years, the organization, which has a 501(3) non-profit standing, has raised $5.2 million for its selected charities.

After volunteering and fundraising for a year, these driven MBAs gather every April at Stanford to compete for the coveted ‘Golden Briefcase’.

So how does one go about acquiring it?

It boils down to three factors:

• Per Capita Funds Raised (40% weight)
• Per Capita Hours Volunteered (40% weight)
• Performance at the C4C Weekend Sporting Events (20% weight)

Since 1986, these business schools have been passionately donating hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars as their onus to give back to the community. Each school has local organizations that they regularly support with the money raised, the Special Olympics being the one that is common to all and also the primary beneficiary. Philanthropic? Yes, definitely but most importantly, it is the commitment that makes this effort unique.

Stanford, Pepperdine, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, University of Washington, UC Davis and the University of San Francisco are the nine C4C competitors battling their way out through a simple three-step procedure described by Stanford as follows:

1. Dedicate Volunteering Hours – To qualify as a C4C volunteer, a student has to contribute a minimum of five volunteer hours at any charity. Stanford’s charities include the Special Olympics, the Boys and Girls Club and East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring.
2. Donate to Fundraisers – From auctions to free surveys, these business school philanthropists find fresh ideas each year to propagate C4C’s cause.
3. Dominate Sports and Games – From Ultimate Frisbee to Volleyball and Trivia Bowl to Spelling Bee, there are a myriad of trophies to take home after these fun filled two days.

 2014 Challenge

This year C4C weekend was held on April 11 and April 12 2014. Pepperdine could not compete this year so there were eight participants. Visitors stayed at one of three partner hotels: Sheraton Palo Alto, Hotel Keen or Best Western Plus Riviera. The event was sold out.

1,500 student C4C volunteers raised $547,080 and dedicated 17,493 volunteer hours towards charities. In other words, each of the volunteers contributed 11.6 hours each.

USC raised the maximum funds i.e. $202,271 and contributed the maximum volunteer hours i.e. 5,405. Small wonder then that USC once again bask in glory after their 2013 victory, and prove themselves as the rightful owners of the Golden Briefcase with 80 points.

A close call with UW behind who have 55% the enrolled students but manage to give USC a good fight, landing shy by only two ‘Golden Briefcase’ points at 78 points.

UCLA is the second runner-up with 58 points.

UW is number one with $485 raised per capita. USC topped the charts with 12.8 hours volunteered per capita. UCLA vanquished its rivals on the field during the C4C Challenge Weekend with 2021 points during the 22 weekend sports and events ranging from Flag Football, Battle of the Bands, Golf, Spelling Bee to Cheerleading. Fundraising and Volunteering contribute 40% of the weight to the ‘Golden Briefcase’ points, whereas Weekend Sports & Events constitute 20% of the final points tally.

Wondering where Stanford came in the tally? Well, let’s just say only one school managed to fall below Stanford GSB in the ‘Golden Briefcase’ points tally and that is University of California – Berkeley. However, on drilling down deeper to understand the reason for Stanford’s loss, one can see that Stanford is easily the largest school out of all nine participants schools with a two-year enrollment size of 806 students. Eighty percent of the final points are dependent on per capita events i.e. fundraising and volunteering. Stanford fares an abysmal fifth and eighth in each. In the sporting events, Stanford does much better ranking second.

Why C4C?

C4C encompasses the true meaning of giving back. To be able to convert what’s taught in the curriculum to something useful for the community is what these prospective MBAs show us. Strategic thinking, leadership, networking, team building and faith in a deeper cause is precisely why C4C continues to be one of the most anticipated events among business schools on the West Coast even after 30 years. As Ann Greeley, a past president of C4C who serves on the advisory board said, “Because it embodies the idea that your education is there to improve you so that you can improve the community around you.”

We leave you with this video from UC-Irvine to get the adrenalin pumping: