Bonus challenges are great for several reasons. First, they provide a common goal for all of your participants (across all of your groups) to work towards by the end of the day. And, secondly, they provide an opportunity for everyone to be involved. Sometimes, only 7 people can be painting at one time, so a bonus challenge means the other 3 people in the group can work on something different for an hour before returning to the main challenge project. It also can come in handy if the group completes their challenge early!

So, while the bonus challenge shouldn't necessarily be the main focus for the groups (hopefully they've got enough to handle with their actual challenge project), it's a fun way to spread the spirit of service throughout the community in one way or another. The main idea behind these is that they are quick, achievable tasks that every group has in common. Some ideas:

Cards for Hospice Families

• Groups were asked to make 10 cards of any kind (birthday, happy anniversary, hope you're doing well) to give to Hospice families and caretakers, that Hospice would sent out throughout the year.
• Some groups did handmade cards, others got cards donated from local businesses.
  

Random Acts of Kindness

• Groups are asked to complete 3 random acts of kindness to anyone outside the organization they're working with.
• In their challenge packets, each group was given a few "random acts of kindness cards" -- letting people know that it was in honor of Dr. King, to give out as they completed their acts.

WeCAN Do It!

• WeCAN is a local non-profit that provides emergency funds to individuals to assist them in getting emergency fuel oil or paying their electricity bill.
• Each group was asked to raise money for one gallon of fuel per member (so, the current price was $2.21, thus a group of 13's goal was to raise 13x$2.21=$28.73.)
  
• Groups were asked not to save their seed money to put towards the goal. By the end of the day, 17 groups raised nearly $1100 (WAY more than the original goal of the price of a gallon of fuel per person).

Where do the ideas come from? Often bonus challenge projects come from suggestions from a non-profit agency -- maybe they have a project idea that you just don't think will take one group all 6 hours to complete...so instead, split it up among your 10 or 15 groups to complete. The WeCAN challenge as an example, came initially as a suggestion for a "challenge project" -- but the committee wasn't sure that the $500 initial fundraising goal was a big enough challenge for a group. So instead, they split it up among 17 groups and it ended up raising far more money as well!