As an institution of higher education that prioritizes community engagement, it's essential to promote transparency and ensure that your efforts are working.
An annual report is one way to measure and document your college or university's community impact. This report can share data on the number of students engaged in community-based research and service-learning, the types of projects they are working on and the outcomes of those projects.
In addition, the report can highlight how your institution is working to improve your local community's quality of life and outcomes.
By centralizing this data in one place and making it easy to digest, an annual report allows you to provide a complete picture of how your institution is doing.
Identifying Goals
When it comes to community impact, there are a few key things you'll want to include in your annual report:
- An overview of the community engagement activities your institution undertook during the year.
- The number of students who participated in community engagement projects.
- The outcomes of those projects.
- The number of community partners engaged.
- The experience of students and community partners.
It's also a good idea to include information about how your college or university promotes diversity, equity and inclusion in your community engagement efforts. This may include information about how you compensate students and community partners for their labor, how you lift up community voices to create reciprocal relationships and how you work to eliminate bias in experiential learning opportunities.
Your annual report is an opportunity to showcase the great work your institution is doing to make a difference in the lives of others. By taking the time to develop a well-rounded report, you can ensure that your community knows just how much you care.
Gathering Data
Now that you know what to include in your annual report, it's time to start collecting data. This can be daunting, especially if you don't have a system to manage community engagement.
GivePulse’s service-learning management software streamlines the process by providing a platform for tracking engagement, collecting reflections and measuring impact. Along with scheduling and tracking student hours, you can design surveys to collect qualitative data from students and community partners to understand their experience collaborating with your institution.
With GivePulse, you can easily see which community partners are most active, what type of impact your students are having and where there is room for improvement.
Using GivePulse to Support Institutional Reporting
An annual report on institutional community impact is a great way to showcase the positive difference your institution is making. By taking the time to develop a well-rounded report, you can ensure that your community understands how and when you engage — and the outcomes you produce.
Institutions of higher education work with GivePulse to streamline the logistics of community partnerships and track student engagement in service-learning and volunteering.
GivePulse can help streamline the process by providing a platform for tracking engagement and impact data. By tracking data throughout the year, GivePulse can help you develop a comprehensive annual report on your institution's community impact. Plus, our intuitive data visualizations make it easy to demonstrate and analyze impact for you and your partners.
Ready to learn how GivePulse can help you develop a transparent, impactful annual reporting process? Schedule a demo with our team today.
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.