where like-minded students Lead the way in expanding GIVE’s mission to inspire the next generation of global citizens.
Welcome to the GIVE Student Group Resource Center! We’re beyond excited to have you as an engaged, active global citizen dedicated to taking global citizenship to the next level at your own university, college, or high school! Whether you’re a brand new student group, well-established or a new president taking over, this page is your one stop shop for all things student groups.
Connect with other GIVE Student Groups!
To start, let’s all get connected, GIVE fam! First, make sure follow all of GIVE’s social media and create post alerts (social media icons are at the bottom of the page). We also have a private Student Group Facebook Group and GroupMe where you can connect with other leadership, share ideas, receive updates, and have hands-on engagement!
SG President Facebook
Request to join GIVE’s private Facebook group for Student Group Presidents/Leadership!
As a Student Group president, you’re a valued member engaged GIVE Ambassador team! Join us to continue the momentum and share your story. Click here for action items!
Student Group & Fundraising Handbooks, plus resources to get started!
How to describe a GIVE Student Group
Let’s start with the basics – describing a GIVE student group. GIVE Student Groups are individually organized and run directly by students. You have a dedicated GIVE rep to support your group’s efforts, answer questions and provide guidance, and engage all GIVE student groups across the globe on impact campaigns, global citizenship discussions, and more! It’s important to represent your student group as a “global citizenship organization” versus a “travel organization” since you’re not actively organizing responsible travel trips. GIVE student groups are empowering global citizenship and engaging locally while thinking globally, not operating/facilitating trips. (Refer to page 4 of the student group manual to expand on this.) Click below for an example description below and feel free to put it into your own words.
Example Description
EXAMPLE: “GIVE Student Groups are global citizenship groups promoting sustainable volunteer efforts, global-minded initiatives, environmentally-conscious lifestyles, and expanding comfort zones with adventures. Groups actively raise money and awareness for humanitarian initiatives, volunteer in their own communities, hold monthly events and meet-ups to stay connected with their GIVE family, encourage fellow students to get involved globally, and so much more. This collective grassroots movement is increasing GIVE’s impact exponentially and helping to fulfill our mission to empower global citizens and ignite sustainable change worldwide. We want to create a safe space for students to discuss global issues at our meetings and we will do everything in our power to create positive change in the world, starting at our University!”
Keep scrolling to find your student group handbook, your handbook for EVERYTHING you’ll need to be successful!
GIVE Student Groups are global citizenship groups promoting local volunteer efforts, global-minded initiatives, environmentally-conscious lifestyles, and expanding comfort zones with adventures.
Having this student group on our campus has given me and so many others a community and a sense of family. It also allows for purpose. We are able to step out of our campus bubble, and truly support the community that welcomes so many students every year… This student group changes a college experience for the better. – Logan Falk, President, James Madison University GIVE
Student Group Handbook
The Student Group Handbook has the ins and outs of starting and running a successful GIVE student group! It’s highly recommended you read the entire handbook if you’re going to be leading the group.
There’s a lot to know when it comes to running a successful student group. We’ve got your back and created this handbook filled with tools for EVERYTHING student group related. This manual provides the foundation to start a GIVE student organization and hit the ground running as well as running an engaged, successful group. The manual also has useful resources and tools to support your student group endeavors. This manual will be your guide, however, you are the best resource for adapting these tools at your own school! You also have a dedicated GIVE rep to support you, answer questions, provide guidance, and engage your group with other student groups across the globe! We are here to provide the resources to start strong, then it’s up to you to continue the momentum (and we’re here for support, of course:)! Download your Student Group Handbook here or click below.
Your university or school will require a constitution to describe your student group’s purpose, mission, etc. A sample constitution is below to use as a guide to draft your own with your university-relevant info and guidelines. This is an important piece that’s required before you become legit at your school or university. Continue reading important notes below and click to view a sample constitution!
Learn More
Be sure to take your time creating your constitution, proofread, and make sure it’s buttoned up before sending it off to your Student Activities Office. You can even take it to your campus’ writing center if you need an extra set of eyes (or your GIVE rep is happy to review as well!)! If there are errors or misleading info, your school or university may contact you for follow-up questions, which will delay the process. Here’s your sample constitution link.
NOTE: EXEC BOARD: Some Universities require you to have a leadership team before starting a group. This isn’t always the case, but if it is just appoint a few friends or past volunteers to take the leadership roles because you can always change this later or run official elections
Most universities or schools will require you to fill out a registration form. We’ve provided some commonly asked questions below. Feel free to expand or add elements that apply to your group and school. You can always ask us questions if you’re unsure how to answer and/or we’re happy to review as well!
Example Questions and Answers
What is the purpose of your student group?
The purpose of a GIVE student group is to create a community of global citizens by having discussions and interactive events about global issues and how we can make a positive, sustainable impact as students. GIVE at _____ will focus on environmental stewardship, social entrepreneurship, english education access for rural communities abroad and so much more. We will host educational and interactive meetings, events and fundraisers for the projects and people in rural communities all over the world. Some other goals include raising awareness regarding environmental and social issues in an inclusive environment. GIVE is all about understanding that we are all humans living in this big world and if we are part of the world’s problems, we have to be part of the solution as well.
What type of student organization is this?
Service, recreational, global citizenship, etc. (Choose all or what best fits your group!)
What are your membership requirements?
Membership requirements are up to you. When starting off, try not to go overboard with hefty requirements. Make it easy for people to join. For example, have $5 dues for snacks at meetings or to buy t-shirts. As your group grows you can decide as an exec team what the necessary requirements should be based on the vibe of the group.
What will you do at your meetings?
You can make your own rendition of what you plan on doing at your meetings, but here is an example of a fun meeting flow that you can use. Follow a similar structure for your meetings but always leave room for creativity!
Open up with announcements about upcoming volunteer and social events. Each exec member can speak on their area-related updates.
It’s always fun to start off with an Ice-breaker game then you can plan a global citizenship topic to discuss. TED Talks can be a great lead into discussions.
There are also a lot of fun activities to do as a group, like hand-making sustainable eco-friendly items (i.e. t-shirt bags, zero-waste, toothpaste, planting seeds in plastic bottles, etc.)
Plan volunteer activities in your area and fun events for your student groups, such as pizza dinners, hikes, etc.
The possibilities are endless with meetings, so be creative and adapt to your style! Feel free to occasionally have the group go on a hike, yoga class, etc. in replacement to a traditional meeting to keep things interesting!
Next up is the fundraising workshop manual, a great resource for your fundraising chair. The fundraising chair is a super important position, so definitely find a good leader as soon as you can!
Fundraising Workshop Manual
When you’re representing epic responsible travel opportunities, some members will want to go on a GIVE trip to have the same transformational experience you did! It’s important (and awesome) to have a fundraising chair appointed to help students raise money if they can’t pay for a trip out of pocket. We’ve created a manual that you can provide your fundraising chair with to help mentor students interested in a GIVE trip! Learn more below and here’s a link to your Fundraising Workshop Manual!
Learn More
This manual is an awesome resource for your fundraising chair and it will provide them with resources to host fundraising workshops for students interested in international trips. Like the student group manual, this is a foundation that will offer the best practices. However, every group is different and you can make these workshops fit your group best.
It’s important to market your Student Group on campus to increase your enrollment and engagement! Everyone is going to want to know about awesome opportunities to become active global citizens! So how can you market your group and events? Check out the marketing materials we’ve compiled for you!
We have compiled a list of materials for you to use to market your organization. You can use these exact materials or use them to give you inspiration for your own creations. Please share this with your marketing and/or social media chairs. Feel free to add contact information for your student group!
Sample Powerpoint (Refer to pg.13-14 in manual for more info)
One of the best parts of a GIVE student group is having a collaborative space to have meaningful discussions, plan events over yummy snacks, and share good vibes!
Regular meetings are an essential component to keep your group organized, interested, informed, and engaged. It’s recommended to have bi-weekly meetings set at the beginning of the semester. Here is a sample PowerPoint for a visual aid/example and brainstorming tool. Create your own specific to your school with your awesome ideas, goals, etc!
As you’ve seen in the handbook, we have 2 annual GIVE campaigns every year for our student groups across the globe! Our annual campaigns are: Students4students and GoGreen with GIVE! Past student groups love these campaigns because they’re not only fun and inspiring, but also a great way to support our local communities around the world while being active global citizens. Learn more about each campaign below, and if you have ideas for additional campaigns, we’re all ears!
Students4Students
Students4Students (S4S) is our worldwide fundraiser campaign to support educational initiatives, which takes place in the Fall! GIVE Student groups across the nation band together to contribute to our annual goal to raise funds for our education programs across the world. Funds for this project go towards teacher salaries, scholarships, and materials to ensure adequate educational resources. You’ll directly help to support our education programs year-round when volunteers are not on the ground and this is an important contributor! As you know, education is the world’s greatest equalizer on the global scale of inequality, so what better of a cause for students to be involved in!?
We will have our S4S awareness week and social media posts across all GIVE student groups! You can have your group’s individual Students4Students campaign anytime during the Fall semester (and learn awesome past events from other student groups).
Go Green with GIVE
Go Green with GIVE is our worldwide global awareness campaign that takes place in the Spring! All GIVE Student groups across the world will host events on campus to promote a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle. This will encourage fellow members, along with campus communities, to be more conscious about their footprint! This is a super fun week of taking action and bonding as a group through environmentalism.
GIVE will have a week-long campaign with materials and social media posts that all student groups will share. It’s totally up to you and your group on engaging events on campus! You can choose a week in your second semester to have a social media awareness campaign as well organizing events to spread awareness on campus.
Thank you for GIVE-ing On and being a part of the Student Group Movement!
With this Resource Center, supporting materials and your GIVE rep at HQ, you are well equipped to be a successful, impactful part of the GIVE Student Group movement! Our Student Groups are an essential part of this GIVE movement, spreading the Roots of Change and global citizenship throughout the world. You’ll be the leader of this initiative at your school but don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help. Remember, we’re here for you: contact your student group rep at give@givevolunteers.org if you need support or have any questions. Good vibes to your GIVE student group and fellow student groups around the world!
Also, make sure your group members follow GIVE on social media to connect and engage further!