The basic ideas behind projects ("challenges") for the MLK Challenge:
1. Challenges require the group to complete something that is actually challenging, something that may have seemed a little bit out of reach at the beginning of the day. Communicating this to your non-profit partners is essential. Examples of projects: raising $1,000 for a women's shelter (in ONE day), throwing a birthday party for 50 senior citizens (including food donations, activities, etc) with 3 hours to plan, doing a "Trading Spaces"-style makeover for the living room of a local homeless shelter.

2. Challenge project logistics aren't completely planned from start to finish. This may be one of the most difficult things to communicate to your non-profit partners. Ideally, the supplies aren't necessarily there, there's no one telling them exactly what they want the end result to look like. Groups may be required to find donations for materials (paint and paintbrushes for example), or they may be given creative license for the room-makeover challenge mentioned above. Whether it's brainstorming how they're going to tackle a project or figuring out where they're going to get supplies from, the idea behind the MLK Challenge is that everything isn't already organized. Groups get to make decisions and organize how they're going to complete the project. (*Disclaimer: Sometimes, its not feasible for there to be no logistical support prior to the event. For a project where a group was rebuilding a stonewall, the power-tools were already at the site and the agency brought a knowledgeable staff member to work alongside and provide guidance on this highly technical project.)

In general, when teams leave the opening ceremony, they have a copy of their challenge (see examples), their seed money, and directions to the agency. That's it. The rest is up to them.

Tips:

• Look for projects with a clear start and finish. Its motivating for groups to know they have something tangible to complete by the end of the day.
• Non-profits might have a hard time understanding what sorts of projects you're looking for. Be patient, offer ideas of sample projects. See Communicating with Non-profits for ideas.
  
• Manual labor projects (cleaning, organizing, painting) are normally needed by agencies. Be creative though! Organizing a 200-person meal, or planning birthday parties for elderly folks have been great hits on campuses.
  
• What if a non-profit can't come up with a big project? Sometimes agencies just don't have a huge project...but they do have lots of little things that need to be done (painting a room, cleaning their kitchen from top to bottom, replacing the broken back door, etc). Be creative here & come up with a "top 10 list" of tasks for the group to complete. This way, the agency is still getting a project (projects!) accomplished, but the group still has something tangible to work towards throughout the day.
• Since most groups will need to solicit donations/purchase supplies from local businesses -- should you let businesses know ahead of time?time that students will be looking for donations? Or, should you try to organize the donated door or couch or rug, etc ahead of time for the group? In keeping directly with the original MLK Challenge model, no. One of the most exciting pieces of the day is the spontaneous giving from the community. At the same time, especially for the first couple years of the event, doing local press releases, talking on local radio shows, etc will at least get the word out the students will be out and about doing good things in the community on MLK Day. Certainly, if you absolutely don't feel comfortable sending groups out to businesses without any forewarning, we encourage you to make contact. Do whatever works best for you community and campus. Just know that for other campuses that have tried it, they've met the challenges of soliciting donations with great success.
  

See challenge examples for ideas for projects & examples of final challenge descriptions.