Wharton frosh win $10,000

In just a few hours, 10 Wharton freshmen enrolled in Management 100 created a video worth $10,000. The video, which promoted the nonprofit organization Givology, was selected as the winner of the Ford Focus Global Test Drive competition.

The competition required applicants to submit a short video, explaining how they would use the money if they received a donation from Ford. The Management 100 team entered a video for its client, Givology, an online marketplace that leverages small donations for education projects, which was founded by Penn undergraduates in 2008.

On Jan. 17, Givology became one of 40 charitable organizations that will receive a donation of $10,000 and two all-expense paid trips to Madrid, Spain to test drive the new Ford Focus.

Every semester, students in Management 100 execute a community service project for a Philadelphia non-profit.

Chief Executive Officer of Givology Joyce Meng, a 2008 College and Wharton graduate, said she suggested that the Management 100 team submit the video to the Ford Global Test Drive competition.

“We didn’t think we had a chance of winning. But it seemed like such a big opportunity, and we thought there was no harm [in] just submitting,” said Wharton senior Catherine Gao, the chief development officer for Givology.

The theme of the video — that Givology was revolutionizing the non-profit world like Ford was revolutionizing the way cars are made — was “smart and truthful,” said Wharton freshman Julie Cheng, who was part of the team.

“We wanted to show that Givology was different,” she added, citing the organization’s transparency and the way it allows donors to specify exactly how their money is used.

Now, the Givology members are thinking carefully about how to spend their $10,000 of prize money.

“We want to give the money to high-impact education initiatives,” Meng said. Although the plans for the prize money are not definite, she is interested in the Eureka Schools Foundation, which provides an opportunity to help kids in ailing public school systems, she explained.

She is also interested in a charity in Sri Lanka that helps sexually abused women and a school in the slums of Kenya that is opening to help educate disadvantaged women.

Givology has been very successful and is doubling in size every year, Meng said.

However, she attributed Givology’s recent success in the competition not to herself, but to the “enthusiastic and extraordinary kids” on the Management 100 team.

“We learned a lot from the experience,” Cheng said. “You come to school and you don’t expect that in your first semester you will be able to win 10 grand for a charity. It’s empowering.”

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