At Wake Forest University, community engagement isn’t just an add-on, it’s an integral part of the student experience. In a recent conversation, Alison Walker, Director of Community Partnerships and Experiential Learning in the Office of Civic and Community Engagement, shared how their team uses GivePulse to power both academic and co-curricular service in meaningful, measurable ways.
Wake Forest has integrated GivePulse directly with Canvas, their learning management system. This connection allows faculty to create course-specific pages where students can:
The result is a streamlined experience where service becomes an embedded part of coursework, not something separate or difficult to manage.
Beyond participation, Wake Forest leverages GivePulse to measure impact. With features like tagging and data analytics, administrators and faculty can track learning outcomes tied to service experiences.
Tools like geolocation add another layer of accountability, verifying that students are completing their service hours on-site. This ensures both accuracy and integrity while reducing administrative burden.
“We have a "Wake 'N Shake," which is a dance marathon that benefits the Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund. And so hundreds—right, there's tons of students; they're filling the entire gym and in and out, and so being able to use it that way, so it really is helpful for us to be able to see who's coming, who's showing up, to be able to pull that roster, and then of course the service hours.”
For community partners in Winston-Salem, GivePulse offers more than just visibility; it provides structure and support. Organizations can:
These features encourage repeat volunteerism, helping nonprofits build ongoing relationships with students rather than relying on one-time support. The result is a more sustainable, reciprocal model of engagement that benefits both students and the community.
“They (community partners) know that they'll show up because they get some reminders, and then they can get repeat service volunteers because the students themselves can kind of filter for their own areas of passion and interest, find what opportunities there are on any given day of the month, of the week, of the academic year.”
Students often engage in service through multiple channels, like academic courses, Greek life, student organizations, and more. GivePulse brings all of this together in one place.
By centralizing their experiences, students can build a comprehensive record of their involvement, making it easier to showcase their impact on resumes, graduate school applications, and beyond.
At Wake Forest, the adoption of GivePulse has been largely grassroots. By demonstrating its value across departments, the platform has steadily gained traction.
With a newly approved Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) focused on experiential learning, there’s strong potential to expand its use even further into areas such as study abroad, internships, and undergraduate research.
Future plans include piloting a study that uses GivePulse’s survey tools to connect curricular and co-curricular experiences. One initiative will pair a residence hall with a local nonprofit, using pre and post-engagement assessments to better understand student growth and sense of belonging.
This forward-looking approach highlights a key strength of the platform: not just enabling service, but helping institutions understand its true impact.
“That sense of belonging, particularly for first-year, first-semester students who are far away from home—it's their first experience away—to give them a sense of connection not only within classes and other peers in a class, but where they're living and then with the community beyond sort of the campus of the university; and so I would love to be able to use that survey feature to guide that pre- and post-assessment, because it would make it just so much easier for me on the back end to have all that data in one place.”
From simplifying logistics to deepening impact, GivePulse is helping Wake Forest create a more connected, accountable, and meaningful approach to experiential learning, one that benefits students, faculty, and the broader community alike.
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.
Ready to see how we can help you achieve your community engagement goals? Schedule a demo with GivePulse today.