Each year, GivePulse invites partner institutions to nominate students to join the GivePulse Ambassador Program (GPA), an initiative that provides students with first-hand knowledge of the GivePulse platform and a deep understanding of how they can leverage it to enhance engagement across their institutions. We caught up with two Ambassadors from the 2024–2025 cohort to hear how the program is shaping their leadership and amplifying their community impact. Learn more about their experiences below.
My first opportunity to engage my community came through my introduction to a local coalition named Dayton United for Human Rights (DUHR). Joining only 13 cities nationwide, DUHR is in pursuit of the City of Dayton declaring itself as an official “Human Rights City.” To achieve this goal, DUHR hosts education series across the Dayton Region that help to develop research on the status of human rights within our city to be shared with international human rights bodies (ex., United Nations) and fosters conversations and materials across various mediums to keep the Dayton community educated on human rights. I currently serve as Social Media & Communications Chair for DUHR. This role includes monitoring and creating content for all DUHR social media pages and designing all educational materials.
I was first introduced to the GivePulse platform through my Graduate Assistantship (GA) with the University of Dayton’s (UD) Fitz Center for Leadership. In April 2017, the President of UD, Eric Spina, officially declared us as the “University for the Common Good." This became our central vision as an institution, and it has had a deep impact on the way our community engagement is understood and supported throughout the institution. The vision of UD as a University for the Common Good is inspired by the Marianist tradition of always working for the benefit of society.
The Fitz Center for Leadership is an outstanding testament to this vision. The Fitz Center connects with various community organizations to aid in supporting our Dayton community in a plethora of different areas of concern. At the Fitz Center, GivePulse is used to connect community partners with UD students through the means of establishing reciprocal community partnerships. In simpler terms, GivePulse is used to connect UD students with volunteer opportunities that help them create a positive impact in their communities, while providing community partners with volunteers who could help them carry out their services more easily. As a GA, my task is to support our community partners in managing their GivePulse pages, creating promotional materials for GivePulse usage on campus, developing training slides on GivePulse usage, and participating in the GivePulse Ambassador Training to expand my knowledge of GivePulse.
I am an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying philosophy and political science, and my future career goal is to work in nonprofit administration. I enjoy working in my community and making connections with the people around me. It’s motivating to know that my actions can tangibly improve people’s lives.
I was introduced to GivePulse through my job on campus at Service Learning and Impacts in Community Engagement (SLICE), formerly the Volunteer Resource Center, which is the campus office for volunteering resources. We use the platform to coordinate student volunteers for local organizations and promote community engagement on campus.
GivePulse is perfect for what we do, as it helps us point students in the right direction (and track numbers for better funding). The office had been using GivePulse for a few years before I was hired, and they were happy with their experience. Because of this, the SLICE’s Assistant Director, Andrew Alexander, was interested in learning more about how GivePulse could support our community engagement efforts on campus, and how we could better utilize it to serve our students. A previous SLICE employee had also been a GivePulse Ambassador, so to stay updated about GivePulse and hear more about how other institutions across the country are using the program, Alexander nominated me and my coworker to be GivePulse Ambassadors in the 24-’25 school year!
My favorite part of the program was hearing from the other Ambassadors. I gained many great ideas from these conversations, and it felt good to connect with representatives from other universities to learn about the community engagement initiatives that campuses across the country are implementing to engage students, faculty, staff, community partners, and more! It really made me feel like part of a community. I felt supported by the other Ambassadors, and it opened my eyes to the
What the GivePulse Ambassador Program had to offer helped my office implement better programs and foster more effective community service. The program was an opportunity to learn and grow in ways I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I value the time I spent. I felt that my time as a GivePulse Ambassador had a lasting impact on the Boulder community, and I look forward to continuing to use the platform in ways that build my community and explore opportunities to support other campus offices in achieving the same goal.
The GivePulse Ambassador Program allows Ambassadors to connect with other institutions that share a commitment to community engagement through volunteering, service-learning, experiential learning, and beyond. Ambassadors have the opportunity to speak directly with GivePulse staff, connect with students from different offices across the country, and learn more about how other institutions are using GivePulse to promote community engagement and foster student engagement on campus. The program was a valuable opportunity for these Ambassadors to learn more about the GivePulse platform and best practices to promote engagement in their communities.
About GivePulse
GivePulse's mission is to enable everyone in the world to participate and engage in lifting their community to new heights. We do so by providing a platform to list, find, organize, and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and volunteerism.
Founded in 2012 in Austin, Texas, GivePulse works with 650,000+ groups, including colleges and universities, nonprofits, businesses, K-12/school districts, and cities and municipalities. Together, we connect millions of people in an effort to create positive social change.
Start making a difference today by visiting www.givepulse.com.