Track your hours

Track service hours with IU Corps

Doing the work is essential. But reflecting on it is important, too. After you’ve engaged in volunteer work, tracking your experience can help you see just how much work you’ve done in a way that’s clear and cumulative.

You can track your service hours through Volunteer Central.

Tracking your experience has lots of benefits. When you track, you’ll:

  • Have a quantifiable representation of your work
  • Gain a new experience to put down on resumes, talk about in interviews, and share with others
  • Set goals and hold yourself accountable
  • Be more motivated to continue volunteering and to try new opportunities

Track your hours

How to log your volunteer service in Volunteer Central

  • Go to Volunteer Central (in GivePulse)
  • Log in by clicking "Single Sign-On" through IU Bloomington.
  • Open your dashboard. After logging in, you'll land on your personal dashboard.
  • Click "Add Impact"
    • This is the button Volunteer Central uses for logging service hours. You'll usually find it on your dashboard or under your profile in "My Activity/Impacts."
  • Fill out the impact form. You'll be asked for things like:
    • Organization or opportunity name
    • Date(s) you volunteered
    • Number of hours
    • Description of what you did
    • Some programs may also ask for a supervisor name or verification
  • Submit the form by clicking "Submit" or "Save Impact." Your hours may show as pending if approval is required.
  • Check your logged hours by going back to your dashboard or profile to confirm the impact appears.

Reflect on your volunteer experience

Finding your passion
With so many organizations and opportunities around Bloomington, finding the causes and activities you really love can take time. Reflecting upon each volunteer experience you do can help you determine what you’re best at, what you enjoy, and what you’d like to try in the future.  

Improvement 
Each volunteer experience is unique and requires different skills. You’ll learn hands on through each activity, perhaps even stepping out of your comfort zone at times. When you reflect on an experience, think about what you learned and what you may have struggled with, then use that to guide you in your next experience.  

Tracking progress 
Volunteering isn’t always easy, so it’s important to look at how far you’ve come! Tracking your progress—whether by hours spent volunteering, the number of experiences, or the type of experiences—will help you understand the impact of your work and how you’ve grown. 

Career resources 
Remember that volunteer experiences can be great career development opportunities, or even just extra activities to diversify your worldview! Volunteering has many benefits. Listing the volunteer opportunities you’ve done can help boost a resume and sharing stories about your experiences can be a great talking point in an interview or meeting.

Show your experience

Just finished a volunteering activity? Learn how you can show your newfound skills and impact of your actions on your resume! You can find links to IU's many resume resources below to guide you. 

Service will change your life, change your perspective, change your passions, and wake you up to the bigger problems of the world.

Evelyn Eggers, IU student