Overview

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, GivePulse is a freemium platform for managing engagement across web, Android, and iOS. The mix of volunteer-oriented and education-focused capabilities gives it a wider potential remit than a tool centered only on volunteer coordination, though organizations should choose a plan around their structure and required features.

Key features

Engagement analytics and SMS outreach: Analytics can help teams track engagement, while SMS adds a direct outreach channel. Together, they suit programs that need to coordinate participation as well as communicate with it.
Student surveys and LMS integration: These capabilities make GivePulse relevant to educational institutions connecting engagement activity with student feedback and learning systems.
Different organizational tracks: Higher education plans add options such as SSO, Google OAuth, LMS LTI, surveys, internships, and API access. Enterprise/CSR plans instead emphasize ERGs, reservations, whitelabelling, and integrations. That breadth is useful, but it also makes plan selection less straightforward than comparing volunteer volume alone.

Pricing

GivePulse is freemium, with a 7-day trial. The Basic Free plan has 1 admin, 0 subgroups, and 5 custom fields; it gives a solo administrator a way to start, but the zero-subgroup cap is restrictive for organizations that divide work into distinct teams or programs.

Give Joy: 20.00 USD per month when billed annually, with a 20% discount off the monthly price. It includes 2 admins, 1 subgroup, and unlimited volunteers, making it the clearest fit for a small team that needs room for volunteers but little organizational segmentation.
Give Together: 100.00 USD per month when billed annually, with a 20% discount off the monthly price. Its 10 admins and 10 subgroups are a substantial step up for multi-team organizations.
Give More: 170.00 USD per month when billed annually, with a 20% discount off the monthly price. It keeps the 10-admin cap while raising the subgroup limit to 25, so its additional cost is most relevant to organizations that need more program divisions rather than more administrators.
Department: Custom pricing for institutions, with custom numbers of admins and subgroups, SSO, Google OAuth, LMS LTI, surveys, and onboarding. It is aimed at campus deployments needing institution-specific configuration.
Platinum (Higher Education): 1.75 USD per year per full-time equivalent student, billed annually. It includes Department features plus event templates, internships, API access, email templates, and video conferencing integration; the per-student basis makes enrollment central to the cost.
Enterprise (Higher Education): Custom full-institution pricing, with reservation management, a resources database, grants management, applications, and custom integrations. It suits institutions seeking a broader administrative scope than the other higher-education tier.
Silver: 1.00 USD per month when billed annually, with 2 admins and 2 ERGs. This is a narrow entry point for a small employee-resource-group program.
Gold: Custom pricing for mid-to-large teams, with custom admin and ERG counts, event submissions, administrative fields, onboarding, API access, and calendar integration.
Platinum (Enterprise/CSR): Custom pricing for full-enterprise scale, with reservation management, SSO, whitelabelling, prioritized support, and custom integrations.

The lower-priced tiers impose explicit admin, subgroup, or ERG limits; the higher-scoped offerings shift to custom pricing. Give Joy’s unlimited-volunteer allowance does not remove its 2-admin and 1-subgroup ceilings, so organizational structure may matter more than volunteer count.

Platforms

GivePulse runs on the web, Android, and iOS, giving participants and administrators access across browser and mobile platforms.

Who it's for

GivePulse is a strong candidate for nonprofits coordinating volunteers, educational institutions linking engagement to surveys or an LMS, and corporate teams managing ERGs. It is less persuasive for a group that needs several subgroups but wants to remain on the free plan, or for a small team that does not need the broader engagement and institutional features.

Pros and cons

Pro: Unlimited volunteers on Give Joy avoids a volunteer-count ceiling at that tier, useful for small teams whose participation base is larger than their staff.
Pro: Higher-education plans include LMS LTI, surveys, internships, and API access, covering needs beyond basic volunteer coordination.
Pro: Enterprise/CSR options include ERG-specific tiers as well as reservation management, SSO, and whitelabelling for larger deployments.
Con: Basic Free allows no subgroups, limiting its fit for organizations that need to separate programs or teams.
Con: Give Together and Give More both cap administrators at 10; the latter’s higher subgroup allowance does not help organizations that primarily need more admins.
Con: Several institution- and enterprise-oriented plans use custom pricing, making direct budget comparison harder.

Alternatives

For a narrower or different student-engagement need, Student Engagement Software is a relevant category to compare. Volunteer-focused organizations can also compare Nonprofit Volunteer Management Software and Event Volunteer Management Software.

Rubric is a freemium option with a free plan and web, Android, and iOS support; its free tier applies when 12-month transaction volume is below $200.
Zynvo may suit students seeking a free tool for discovery, events, and clubs.
InScribe is a paid institutional option with web, Android, iOS, and API support; choose it for an institution-focused alternative.
Modern Campus CMS is a paid alternative available on web, mobile, API, and self-hosted platforms.
Nearpeer offers an institutional community-of-practice plan at 15000.00 USD per year, with cost dependent on eligible student population.
Suitable is a paid option available on web, Android, and iOS.
Pathify offers an Engagement Hub with custom pricing based on enrollment and optional add-ons.
EAB Navigate360 uses an enterprise license for all staff and students, with pricing dependent on institutional enrollment and technology scope rather than per-user or per-office fees.

Verdict

Choose GivePulse if your organization needs volunteer engagement alongside analytics, outreach, or student-focused capabilities, and its administrator and subgroup limits match how you work. Its strongest case is the combination of volunteer-scale access and education or enterprise extensions; look elsewhere if you need a simpler fit, more flexibility in lower tiers, or public pricing for a large deployment.

	GivePulse	Mainstay
Free plan	Yes
Paid from	$0.15/mo
Platforms	Android, iOS, Web	api, Web
Free plan	Yes
Engagement analytics	Yes	Yes
SMS outreach	Yes	Yes
Student surveys	Yes	Yes
LMS integration	Yes	Yes
Automated campaigns		Yes

GivePulse vs Mainstay

GivePulse

Mainstay