Slippery Rock University replaced manual spreadsheets with GivePulse to foster a student-centered culture of experiential learning and reciprocity.
Advancing from Tracking to Purposeful Engagement
When Slippery Rock University began rethinking its approach to community engagement, the goal wasn’t simply to modernize an outdated system. It was to create a more meaningful, reciprocal, and student-centered approach to experiential learning.
What started as a transition away from paper forms and spreadsheets evolved into a campus-wide culture shift powered by GivePulse.
From Paper Tracking to Purpose-Driven Engagement
When the university first explored community engagement technology, their existing systems were labor-intensive and difficult to scale. According to Jeffrey Rathlef, Director for the Center for Community Engagement, much of the process relied on paper forms, pencil checklists, and disconnected spreadsheets.
At the same time, Slippery Rock was working toward achieving Carnegie Community Engagement Classification recognition. Leadership recognized that a stronger infrastructure would be essential to supporting that vision.
But what stood out most about GivePulse wasn’t simply its ability to track volunteer hours.
It was the platform’s broader understanding of impact.
“Hours serve an important function in our field, but they’re also overemphasized,” Jeffrey explained. Instead of defining service solely by time logged, GivePulse offered opportunities to capture reflections, learning outcomes, civic engagement, and other forms of impact that aligned more closely with the institution’s educational mission.
Building Buy-In Takes Time
Like many campuses implementing new systems, adoption didn’t happen overnight.
The transition to GivePulse (branded internally as “Rock Serve”) was a gradual, multi-year process that required intentionality, flexibility, and patience. The institution spent years building awareness, creating support systems, and integrating the platform into student and faculty workflows.
One of the university’s biggest success factors was the creation of the “Rock Serve Success Team,” a student-led support initiative that helped peers navigate the platform and encouraged broader adoption across campus.
“One of our [Slippery Rock] biggest success factors was from the beginning, and still today, we have had what we call our Rock Serve team and since the beginning, we have had a GA that has run what we call the Rock Serve Success Team; which was so important for getting buy-in from students and supporting community organizations because students can sell it better than I can as director because it's student-to-student; they expect me to say those things, but students have a more compelling argument.”
- Jeffrey Rathlef
Students were often more effective advocates for the platform than administrators because they could speak directly to the student experience and explain the value in relatable ways.
The implementation itself unfolded in stages:
- Early years focused on building participation and critical mass
- Later years introduced advanced features and reporting capabilities
- Eventually, the institution reached a point where data and analytics could be fully leveraged across programs and departments
The process reinforced an important lesson: meaningful engagement systems require cultural adoption, not just technical setup.
Shifting the Conversation from Tracking to Reciprocity
One of the most impactful mindset shifts at Slippery Rock involved reframing how the platform was presented to faculty, students, and community partners.
Instead of emphasizing tracking requirements, the institution focused on reciprocity and engagement.
“The goal is not tracking; the goal is engagement; the goal is reciprocity; tracking is a back-end benefit.”
- Jeffrey Rathlef
That distinction transformed the conversation.
Rather than positioning GivePulse as “one more system” faculty had to manage, the university framed it as a tool that strengthens relationships between students and community partners. Verification processes, for example, became less about compliance and more about creating accountability, interdependence, and shared ownership between campuses and communities.
This values-driven approach helped faculty and students better understand the “why” behind the platform.
The Civic Action Scorecard and Student Choice
One of Slippery Rock’s most innovative initiatives has been its implementation of a Civic Action Scorecard model within GivePulse.
Inspired by a framework developed by Josh Young at Miami Dade College, the university customized the model to fit its own campus culture, student interests, and community priorities.
Over the course of several years, working groups made up of faculty, staff, and students collaboratively developed civic action categories and engagement opportunities tailored to the Slippery Rock community.
What began with 135 civic actions has since expanded to more than 175—and continues to grow through ongoing community input.
Students can now participate in activities connected to:
- Arts and culture
- Environment and sustainability
- Civic engagement and voting initiatives
- Food insecurity and pantry support
- Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts
- And many more cause-driven areas
The flexibility of the scorecard allows faculty to adapt engagement opportunities to their own courses and learning outcomes. Some courses assign a single civic action, while others allow students to choose from a broader menu of experiences tied to course themes.
This approach gives students both structure and agency.
Gamification That Encourages Meaningful Participation
Another major success has been the integration of badges, leaderboards, and gamification features within GivePulse.
Students can earn:
- Bronze, Silver, and Gold achievement badges
- Cause-specific badges tied to areas like sustainability or arts and culture
- Digital credentials that appear on transcripts and LinkedIn profiles
Rather than simply creating a checklist of activities, the badging system helps students tell a more cohesive story about their passions, values, and long-term engagement. The gamification aspect also makes engagement more interactive and motivating for students while helping institutions reinforce experiential learning outcomes.
"We’ve noticed the last few years that when we print off certificates of the badges, the students didn't pick them up; we had stacks of certificates, so we have made them optional, because they [students] seem to care more about the digital badges since they can put them on LinkedIn. My generation was all about the certificates, but for this new generation, that's not as important anymore."
- Jeffrey Rathlef
Learning Through Reflection and Experience
At its core, Slippery Rock’s approach reinforces a foundational principle of experiential education:
Do the work. Document the experience. Reflect on the impact.
Jeffrey emphasized that these processes may seem simple, but they remain incredibly powerful learning tools. “It reinforces what we've known for 50 years: experiential education and approaches work; they're simple, but not simplistic.” “The scorecard—you do the thing, document the thing, and reflect on the thing—that's experiential learning 101, but it's still as powerful as it ever was. We know this is the best way to learn.”
GivePulse supports this cycle by combining action tracking, reflections, badges, and assessment into a single ecosystem.
The platform doesn’t just record participation. It helps students connect their experiences to identity, purpose, and civic growth.
A Platform That Evolves Alongside Institutions
During our conversation with Jeffery, he highlighted an important reality of digital transformation: every platform comes with growing pains.
Slippery Rock encountered challenges related to point tracking, badge management, and mid-semester adjustments. But through collaboration with the GivePulse team and a willingness to adapt processes, the institution continued refining its approach over time.
What mattered most was the partnership.
The university repeatedly emphasized the importance of responsive customer support, ongoing collaboration, and the ability to evolve the platform alongside institutional needs.
Looking Ahead
Today, GivePulse has become deeply integrated into Slippery Rock’s culture of engagement.
What began as a replacement for spreadsheets has evolved into a comprehensive ecosystem for:
- Experiential learning
- Civic engagement
- Community partnership development
- Student storytelling
- Reflection and assessment
- Recognition and credentialing
Most importantly, the institution’s experience demonstrates that community engagement is about far more than tracking hours.
It’s about creating meaningful relationships, fostering reciprocity, and helping students connect service to purpose.
And when technology is aligned with those values, engagement becomes more than a requirement—it becomes transformational.
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.