Do Good Challenge Ups Prize Money to Nearly $40K; New Tracks Announced

The University of Maryland’s annual Do Good Challenge will return on April 22 with nearly $40,000 in prizes—almost double from last year—going to student winners of the social impact pitch competition.

Led by the Do Good Institute, the competition is the culmination of a year of participants working to make a difference for the issues, ideas and communities they care about—advocating, fundraising, volunteering and developing their solutions.

"The Do Good Challenge is bigger than ever,” said Catherine Curtis, program coordinator at the Do Good Institute. “With even more prize money, students use the funding to grow their initiatives and create even more impressive impacts on or off campus."

The competition tracks are new this year: Founders and Leaders. Founders is for competitors who are original founders or creators of the organization, project or initiative. The Leaders track is for competitors in leadership or decision-making roles (e.g., director, president, manager). This includes chapters, projects or subsidiaries of larger organizations.

Each track hosts three finalists. They will make their pitch at the finals event at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center to a panel of expert judges, who will evaluate teams on impact during their pitches and Q&A sessions. Awards include a $10,000 first-place prize, a $5,000 second-place prize and a $2,500 third place prize in each track, plus the Audience Choice awards.

Also during the finals event, the top two semifinalist teams will get on stage to deliver a lightning pitch for the chance to win $1,000 and $750 prizes chosen by the audience.

Applications are open for the Do Good Challenge until Feb. 16 at go.umd.edu/dogoodchallenge.