For the sixth year in a row, the USC Marshall School of Business has placed first at the Stanford Graduate School of Business‘s annual Challenge for Charity competition. The team from Marshall consisted of 220 students. The team raised over $235,000 and completed 5,300 volunteer hours. The winning team is given the Golden Briefcase Award in honor of their efforts. The award is based off of the highest score in total hours volunteered (40 percent of score), money raised (40 percent of score) and performance in sporting events at the Challenge for Charity weekend (20 percent of score).
Challenge for Charity was started 30 years ago at Stanford University. Challenge for Charity is a nonprofit organization with active chapters at eight top business schools on the west coast, including USC, Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley and the University of Washington. Challenge for Charity works to develop leadership in the business field and also commitment to the community and social responsibility. Challenge for Charity is the largest student-run organization at the Marshall School of Business. This year, the Marshall chapter held more than 90 events during the academic year for the organization.
All chapters of the organization concentrate their time and effort on charitable organizations. All school chapters work with the Special Olympics, which is the primary beneficiary of Challenge for Charity. Additional charities are chosen by each school from organizations found in their surrounding communities. Over the last six years, Marshall has raised over $1 million for charity through the Challenge for Charity program.