Community Partner ServeUTK FAQs

As a local non-profit organization, you will be able to affiliate your organization account with the university’s. To create an account, visit this link.

After you have created an account for yourself (we recommend using a general organization email for multiple people to access), you can create your organization’s page on ServeUTK.

Once your page has been created, you can request to affiliate (have your events listed on the UTK page) through our affiliation link.

Please refer to GivePulse’s QuickGuide for Administrators to get an in-depth look and explanation of how to access and manage your ServeUTK account. You can also find additional training videos here.

Learn about creating events in the Community Partners Serve UTK Affiliation and Event Creation.

Have more questions about creating an event? View the GivePulse website here.

If you have questions about whether an event or activity qualifies for service hours, view the JCLS Service Guidelines.

• If you have a long event, it is best to break it up into multiple shifts when possible. We recommend that shifts not exceed a five-hour period or span more than one day.
• Volunteer requests must not place student volunteers in harm’s way or expose them to drug or alcohol consumption.
• Volunteer requests must not utilize UT volunteers to sell items or collect money for an agency or institution.
• ServeUTK is utilized all year but events that take place during breaks and closings (i.e. during fall break, spring break, winter break, administrative closings, official exam periods, etc.) may have lower attendance.
• If a student is volunteering regularly, consider using a ServeUTK timesheet to track service hours.

It is important to verify all legitimate impacts quickly, as many of our students could need these hours for a class or scholarship. You can approve impacts individually, in bulk, or when users sign-in to your event.

If a student registers for an event you have created in ServeUTK, their impact will be automatically created and verified when they are checked in for the event.  Learn more about event check in here.

If someone volunteers with you independently, they can track their hours by adding an impact. Find full information adding and sharing impacts here.

Impact Verification: Once an impact is added, it flows to the event organizer or ServeUTK administrator for approval. This step is called Verification. The JCLS does not verify impacts on behalf of the nonprofit organization or event host.

Important: If you receive a notification to approve a student’s service hours completed at another organization, please ignore that notification. Only approve or dispute service hours performed at your organization. If you are unsure if you should approve an impact, please contact the JCLS at leadserve@utk.edu.

Impact Network Verification: Once verified, the impact then flows to the Jones Center for Leadership & Service. All impacts are reviewed to ensure that the activity meets JCLS Service Guidelines. This step is called Network Verification.

If you see that an impact is disputed by the JCLS, this typically means that the impact was logged incorrectly by the student and needs to be corrected before approval or that the activity does not meet JCLS Service Guidelines. The dispute notification should include a message. If you have questions about why an impact was disputed, please contact the JCLS at leadserve@utk.edu.

To verify impacts, go to the Manages Impacts page under Impacts in your page dashboard. From here, you can verify multiple impacts by selecting the checkbox next to the user’s name. Then all you need to do is select Bulk Actions and Verify Selected Impacts. You can also verify individual impacts by finding the user and selecting Verify Impact in the drop-down menu to the far right of the screen.

Using ServeUTK, you can create custom impact reports. To do this, start from your page dashboard. Select “Impacts” from the menu on the left of the screen and then click “Manage Impacts”. On this page select Configure Layout. This menu will allow you to select which items you want to look at. Once you have done that, click the blue Actions button and then click Export. This will give you the option to export all of the data or just the items visible on the page. Once you select your preference, it will export the information into an excel document.

Yes! There can be registration approval where you can approve everyone who signs up individually.

Shifts are for opportunities where you need volunteers for specific sets of time. Shifts allow you to set exactly when the volunteers will start and end their service. Time Slots are for more open ended opportunities, they allow you to set a period of time where the user can select when they want to serve.

Example: You may have a need for volunteers anywhere from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Using time slots, volunteers can select to serve from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Note that you do have the ability to set a minimum number of hours that the user must serve.

If you have admin roles for any group, you can update how often you receive key admin updates from your groups in your settings. Read about your options here.