GivePulse, a nationwide platform that allows people to find volunteer opportunities has partnered with Kennesaw State University to give students access to more ways to serve their communities.
With GivePulse, students will be able to find more volunteer opportunities through nonprofits and organizations that list events on the website. This allows more students to see the impact they have on their community through community service.
Students can sign up by visiting the Student Volunteerism and Service page and selecting Community Partners. This page contains more information about GivePulse and presents an Apply to Be an Affiliate button that leads to the signup website.
On the Give Pulse Explore page, users are able to search for volunteer opportunities based on their location. Filters are also available to specify the search such as emergencies (COVID-19, Disaster Relief, etc.), date, event type, age limit, causes, skills or remote opportunities.
Users can register for events directly on the website making the signup process seamless. Once the affiliated volunteer work is completed, the hours are automatically added to the volunteer’s account. If volunteer work was done outside of GivePulse, the GivePulse Support website details how users can add those hours to their account alongside their automatically tracked hours.
By being able to track volunteer hours and donations, students can see the change they have caused in the community, see their influence on the world around them and use the experience for future professional applications and resume building.
On the GivePulse blog, the company discusses skills students develop as an outcome of participating in volunteer programs. These skills include problem-solving, critical thinking and a “deepened sense of civic responsibility.“
GivePulse also recommends that organization leaders do student reflections before, during and after the community service to fully understand the impact it had on them.
Creating lists of organizations that go toward specific causes and giving organizations a spotlight on social media are some of the ways GivePulse actively provides a platform to minority groups. Give Pulse posted organizations for Juneteenth, Gay Pride Day and spoke about the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In 2012, George Luc and James McGirr founded Give Pulse in Austin, Texas. Inspired by volunteer work in high school, Luc established a platform to connect people in their community with organizations they believe in, which the company mission statement expands on.
“Our mission is to enable everyone in the world to participate and engage in lifting their community to new heights,” their website says. “We do so by providing a platform to list, find, organize and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy and volunteerism in the community.”
The company now has more than 10 million impacted areas in North and Central America and has brought together thousands of groups to better their communities and work toward common goals.
