GivePulse Made Easy

1. From your county group’s home page in GivePulse, click Manage in the top menu and select your county group.
2. From the Manage page, click Surveys in the left menu and select Manage Surveys.
3. From the Surveys page, enter Washington State University Master Gardeners into the filter field at the top of the Owner column to see the approved Certification survey template shared at the Network level.
4. Make a copy of the survey template by carefully following each of these three steps:
   1. To the right of the survey listing, click the Actions column dropdown for that row and select Duplicate.
   1. In the pop-up window that appears, you MUST click the dropdown and select Create copies of each field.  This is an ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL step; missing it will jeopardize the integrity of your survey content and you will need to delete the copy you’ve made and start over.  (See NOTE at the bottom of this page if you need to delete your copy and begin again.)
   1. Double-check that you’ve selected Create copies of each field, then click Confirm.
5. Your new copy of the application will open in your county group and will be ready for you to begin editing.

NOTE:  If you made an error in completing Step 4b above and need to delete the survey copy you made and begin again, you may use the following steps:

1. From the left menu, click (back arrow) Manage Surveys, then select Manage Surveys.
2. From the Surveys page, enter your county group name into the filter field at the top of the Owner column to see the list of surveys in your group, including the survey copy you just saved.
3. To the right of that survey listing, click the Actions column dropdown for that row and select Delete.
4. Return to the top of this page and begin again from the first step.

1. Title: Insert your county name – this is the title that will appear at the top of your application.
2. Description: Edit the first two sections of the Description as follows:
   1. PLEASE READ (Program Coordinator instruction) section:
      1. TIP: Drag the bottom right corner of the Description window downward so you can view more of the Description content without scrolling.Carefully read this top section of the Description, then delete only the top section once you understand what it says.
      Message from the Program Coordinator section:
      1. This section will appear as the Introduction in the final survey.You may edit the items bracketed in <chevron symbols>, to include:
         1. Welcome paragraph from the Program CoordinatorThis year’s certification requirements and links to documents and policies (you may customize to address county-specific requirements)Service hours requirements (may vary by county and MG status)Continuing Education hours requirements (may vary by county and MG status)Program Coordinator complimentary close (e.g., Sincerely,” and signature/name
         Please do NOT edit the “New for this year…” paragraph.
   1. Civil Rights Information for WSU Master Gardener Volunteers – Confidential and Voluntary section:
      1. Please do NOT make any changes to the Civil Rights Information section and do not insert anything after it; this should be the last section in the Description field.
3. Click Save and Continue to save your work and automatically proceed to the next step.  You may return to the Details tab to make further edits at any time by opening the survey and clicking Edit in the left menu.  Always save your work before leaving the Details tab.

Administrator: Change to yourself by selecting your name from the dropdown list.

Email Notifications: Decide whether to receive an email notification each time a survey response is submitted.  TIP: You may select Do Not Send Any Notifications and monitor applications in other ways.

Visibility: Change to Private – this makes your survey visible to only your group.

Open Date: Leave blank while editing and testing.  Setting a future date now will impede your ability to test your survey.  Instructions are provided later for setting an Open Date before launching your survey.

Submission Deadline: You may set this now or leave it blank until you set your Open Date.  Volunteers will be unable to submit a survey after the Submission Deadline and will instead receive the message, “Applications closed. Contact organizer for more info.”

Preview Mode: Set to Disabled.  Preview mode allows users to preview the survey, but not submit a response, so it would interfere with your testing and is best left set to Disabled at this time.

Allow Drafts: Allows respondents to save a draft and return later to complete and submit it.  This is helpful for long surveys or essay responses, but respondents may also forget to return and submit their surveys.  For this relatively short survey, we recommend setting this to No, but the choice is yours.

Anonymous Responses: Set to No – it is critical to know who is submitting Certification Applications.

Allow Guest Users: Set to No – only members of your group should have access.

Can Edit Responses: Set to Yes – this allows respondents to update their survey responses until the Submission Deadline, in case they’ve made an error.

Multiple Responses: Set to No – each volunteer may submit only one Certification Application.

Enable Review: Set to No — this feature has not functioned in a way that adds value to our process.

Phone Required:  You may set to Yes or No.  If Yes, each volunteer’s telephone number will appear in their survey.  If they haven’t provided a telephone number, they will be required to enter one.

Send Confirm Email: Set to Yes – however, be aware that only volunteers who have not opted out of receiving GivePulse messages will receive the confirmation email.

Confirmation Message: Approved text is already provided in the template and will appear at the top of the Confirmation screen after a volunteer submits a response.  For volunteers who have not opted out of receiving GivePulse messages, this text will also appear in addition to the standard message in the Confirm Email, which reads, “Hi, <FirstName>, thank you for completing <SurveyName>.  Your response has been recorded.  <GroupName> will contact you if any further information is needed.”

Click Save and Continue to save your work and automatically proceed to the next step.  You may return to the Settings tab to make further edits at any time by opening the survey and clicking Edit in the left menu.  Always save your work before leaving the Settings tab.

IMPORTANT: Please do NOT edit, move or rearrange the Demographics Survey header or the Gender, Ethnicity and Race questions in any way.  The Demographics Survey section was constructed by the Statewide Program Leader in partnership with WSU Extension Civil Rights Reporting resources and must be presented to volunteers exactly as provided in the template.

You may make minor changes or add questions to the Application for Certification and Requested Volunteer Status for YYYY sections where needed for county-specific content, provided your content remains consistent with the Annual Certification Policy posted in MS Teams.

Edit a Header or Question:

1. Place your cursor over the question and click the edit (pencil) icon that appears in the upper right corner.
2. Label: Edit the primary question text in the Label field.
3. Help Text: Edit secondary or help text in the Help Text field.
4. Required: Selecting Yes will require respondents to answer before submitting their survey.  Required questions are preceded by a red asterisk (*) in the survey.  Selecting No will allow respondents to submit their survey without answering the question.
5. Answer Type: Use Single Answer – Update Previous Response for all questions in this survey.  This ensures our records will contain only the final answer selected by the respondent.
6. When done, click Close at the bottom of the question and then click Save (not Save & Invite).

Important Note for the Requested Volunteer Status for YYYY section:

• Insert your county-specific information in two places:
  • In the Requested Volunteer Status for YYYY section header, insert the email address for your county Program Office, and
  • In the “My requested status…” question, insert your county name

Add a Header or Question:

1. Drag a question type from the right menu and drop it where you wish it to appear (do not insert any questions in or above the REG section).
2. See the Edit a Header or Question section above for guidance on editing your new question.
3. You may include a link in a question; GivePulse will automatically convert it to a hyperlink for respondents.  However, questions do not support custom display text for links.
4. If you change your mind and need to delete a question you’ve added, place your cursor over it and click the X icon that appears in the upper right corner.  (Please do not delete the required questions.)

Click Save (NOT Save & Invite) to save your work when finished editing the Questions tab.  You may return to the Questions tab to make further edits at any time by opening the survey and clicking Edit in the left menu.  Always save your work before leaving the Questions tab.

View your Survey:

To see exactly how your survey content will appear to respondents, you can view the actual survey at any time.

1. Always save your work first by Save (not Save & Invite)
2. From the left menu in your survey, click View
3. Use your browser’s back button to return to Editing (depending on your browser, you may also then need to click Try Again and/or Resend)

Test your Survey:

You may submit test responses to understand how volunteers will experience the survey.  You can delete your test responses using instructions on this page, so they don’t appear in final survey results.

The first time you complete a test response, the question fields will be blank.  If you submit additional test responses, the question fields will be pre-filled with your most recent answers.  This is by design – the settings have been selected to enable new answers to overwrite previous answers if a respondent edits their survey response.  This ensures the final survey response contains only their final answers.

Testing from the View function (fastest method while editing):

Use the instructions in the View your Survey section, above, to view the survey, answer the questions and submit a test survey response.

Test using a Shareable Link:

1. From the left menu in your survey, click Dashboard.
2. From the survey dashboard, click on the Shareable link – it will automatically copy to your clipboard.
3. Open a new browser window and paste the shareable link into the address field.
4. Note: Consider logging out of GivePulse between steps 2 and 3; this will allow you to see the login experience.

Delete Test Responses:

1. From the left menu in your survey, click Responses.
2. Identify a response you wish to delete, click the Actions column dropdown for that row, and then select Delete.
3. Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Open Date and Submission Deadline:

Once you’ve completed your testing, you can set the day and time for the Open Date and, if you haven’t done so already, the Submission Deadline.

The Open Date should be the date and time you wish respondents to first be able to access the survey.

The Submission Deadline should be the date and time after which you no longer want to accept responses.

If a volunteer attempts to access the survey before the Open Date setting or after the Submission Deadline setting, the following message will be displayed on their screen: “Applications closed. Contact organizer for more info.”  (Note: the word “organizer” will link to a message form to for contacting the Primary Administrator for your group.)

TIP: Consider setting the Submission Deadline shortly (perhaps an hour or so) after the deadline you actually communicate to your volunteers.  This will allow a small window for someone who begins their survey at the last possible minute.  If they are in the middle of their survey when the time in the Submission Deadline setting is reached, they will be unable to submit the survey.

Setting your Open Date and Submission Deadline:

1. From the left menu, click Surveys and select Manage Surveys.
2. From the Surveys page, click the name of your survey.
3. From the Survey Dashboard, click Edit in the left menu.
4. Go to the Settings tab.
5. Set the date and time for Open Date and Submission Deadline.
6. Scroll to the bottom of the tab and click

Prepare Communications:

You may wish to consult the next section and decide which invitation method you prefer, as that may influence your communication to volunteers.

There are two ways to invite your volunteers to complete a GivePulse survey, each with pros and cons:

• Paste Shareable Link into an email communication
  • Shareable Link Pro:
    • Allows you to provide detailed messaging and/or instructions along with the linkAllows you to control which members of your group receive the invitation
  • Shareable Link Con:
    • Does not support identifying non-responders by exporting your survey responses; however, this is still easily accomplished by adding key responses to your Manage Users view
• Send invitation through GivePulse
  • GivePulse Invitation Pro:
    • Allows you to track non-responders by exporting your survey responses
  • GivePulse Invitation Con:
    • Does not support selecting or deselecting members for the invitation – goes to all members

You may also consider using both methods if you feel reaching your volunteers both ways could be helpful.  Instructions for each method are provided here:

Obtain a Shareable Link:

1. Click Surveys in the left menu and select Manage Surveys to access the Surveys page
2. In the Owner column, change the filter setting to your county group name, if you haven’t already, in order to see your own list of surveys.
3. Click the survey name to open the Survey Dashboard for that survey.
4. Click the shareable link on the dashboard to copy it to your clipboard.
5. Paste the shareable link into an email or other communication method to invite your members to complete the Certification Application.

Send invitation through GIvePulse:

Before sending a survey invitation through GivePulse, you must confirm all of your Master Gardener volunteers have the Member role.  Invitations will not be sent to Users who may have inadvertently removed their Member role in GivePulse.

Confirm Member roles for active Users:

1. From the left menu, click Users and select Manage Users.
2. On the Manage Users screen, click the blue Actions button and select Export.
3. In the Export Users pop-up window, select All Data and click Export
4. Open the resulting Excel report and apply filtering.
5. Filter the Is Member column in the report to identify Master Gardeners with a blank in the Is Member field.  (Note: WSU or county employees who are not Master Gardeners will most likely have a blank in this column, but this is okay, as non-volunteers should not receive the invitation.)
6. If all of your Master Gardeners have a Yes in the Is Member field, skip to Create the invitation in GivePulse, below.
7. If any Users have a blank in the Is Member field, continue with the next steps to add back their Member role, so they can receive the invitation.
8. Return to the Manage Users page and find each User who is missing the Member role.
9. Scroll all the way to the right in the individual User row and click the Actions column dropdown for that User row, then select Make Member.  Repeat for each User who had a blank in the Is Member field in your User report.
   1. Note: When you add back a User’s Member role, they will receive an automated GivePulse notification email welcoming them to your group.
10. If necessary, run the User report again to confirm all of your active Users now have a Yes in the Is Member field.  Once confirmed, proceed to the next section.

Create the invitation in GivePulse:

1. From the left menu, click Surveys and select Manage Surveys
2. From the Surveys page, ensure the Owner column filter is set to your county group name, then click the name of the survey for which you wish to send an invitation.
3. On the Survey Dashboard, click the blue Actions button and select Invite Survey Takers.
4. On the Create Invitation page, enter a Title for your invitation (this is for your reference; it will not appear in the invitation).
5. Click the first dropdown field under Create your invitation and select Invite members from a group to send the invitation to all active Users who have the Member role.
   1. Note:  Using “Invite all from a group” is not recommended, as it will include non-member registrants and admins in the invitation.
6. Click the second dropdown field under Create your invitation and select the group to whom you wish to send the invitation.
7. Ensure the Send email invite to everyone box is checked.  (If it is not checked, the invitation will not be sent to anyone.)
   1. Note:  There is no option to select or deselect individual Members; the invitation will go to all Members in your group.
8. Click Create to send the invitation.

What invitees receive:

If you use the Shareable Link in an email, you will control all of the message content.

If you send your invitation through GivePulse, it will arrive as a GivePulse notification email in User mailboxes, with the following details:

• Sender name:  Washington State University | GivePulse
• Subject line:  <Your county group name> has invited you to take a survey!
• Message text:  Hi, <First name>, You’ve been invited to take the survey “<Survey name>” for <Your county group name>
• Active (clickable) button text:  Take the survey now

How volunteers access the survey:

Upon receiving an invitation, whether in email with a Shareable Link or via GivePulse, volunteers will access the survey as follows:

• Step 1
  • Action: Volunteer either clicks the Shareable link in your email OR clicks the “Take the survey now” button in the GivePulse invitation
  • Result: A GivePulse login page appears on the volunteer’s screen
• Step 2
  • Action: Volunteer enters their GivePulse User ID and Password
  • Result: The survey opens on the volunteer’s screen and they may begin to complete it

Confirmation screen upon Submit:

Upon completing a survey response and clicking Submit, respondents will be taken to a confirmation screen, containing the following:

• The Confirmation Message – this is the approved language from the Settings tab (page 4)
• Each survey question with the volunteer’s response
• A blue Actions button with two dropdown options:
  • Edit Responses – takes the respondent back into the survey, so they can update their responses and resubmit (but only until the Submission Deadline is reached)
  • Download PDF – enables respondent to save a copy of their completed survey

Confirmation email:

Respondents who have not opted out of receiving GivePulse messages will receive an automated confirmation email from GivePulse:

• The first part of the Confirmation email is a standard message, which reads, “Hi, <FirstName>, thank you for completing <SurveyName>.  Your response has been recorded.  <GroupName> will contact you if any further information is needed.”
• The second part of the Confirmation email will contain the approved Confirmation Message language from the Settings tab (page 4)

After navigating away from the Confirmation screen, respondents may still navigate back to their survey response in either of the following ways:

• Respondents may simply click the Shareable Link in your email or the active button in the GivePulse invitation and then enter their User ID and Password again to be taken back to their Confirmation screen, OR
• If respondents are already logged into GivePulse, they may:
  • Click My Activity in the top menu and select Surveys
    • From the Surveys page, they may view their list of survey responses and confirm the Status is “Submitted”
    • They may also click the name of the survey to be taken back to their Confirmation screen

Note: If you decide to allow Drafts, respondents may also use either of the above methods to access their Draft in order to complete and submit it before the Submission Deadline.

Manage Deadline Exceptions:

If a volunteer misses the Submission Deadline and you wish to grant an exception to allow a late Certification Application, the following is recommended:

1. Make an appointment with the volunteer to complete their application in a specific time window (no more than 1 hour)
2. At the beginning of the exception time window, reset the Submission Deadline to no more than one hour later; this will allow them time to submit their application before the window closes again.

View an individual response:

1. From the left menu, click Surveys and select Manage Surveys.
2. From the Surveys page, ensure the Owner column filter is set to your county group name, then click the name of the survey for which you wish to view a response.
3. Use the Responder column filter to find the individual whose response you wish to view.
4. Click the Actions column dropdown for that row and select View.

Export all responses to Excel:

1. From the left menu, click Surveys and select Manage Surveys.
2. From the Surveys page, ensure the Owner column filter is set to your county group name, then click the name of the survey for which you wish to export responses.
3. Click the blue Actions button and select Export Responses.
4. From the Export Response pop-up, select All Data.
5. If you sent your invitation through GivePulse, you may also click the checkbox for Include all invitees in export, to see which invitees have not yet responded (if you used a Shareable Link, instead, you will receive only responses in your report).
6. Click Export
7. Open the resulting Excel spreadsheet to view all responses to date
   1. If you sent your invitation through GivePulse and you checked the Include all invitees in export selection in Step 5 above, you will a row for every invitee; rows for invitees who have not yet responded will have a blank in the answer field for each question.

Add key survey questions to Manage Users view:

You may also add survey responses to your Manage Users, so you can see them while working through your list of volunteers in Manage Users.  This is also another easy way to identify which volunteers have not yet submitted a survey response.

After your survey has launched to volunteers (i.e., your survey content has been finalized), determine which survey responses you want to see in your Manage Users view as you’re making certification decisions.  Select only those questions with responses you may need view for decision-making or for which you may need to take action.  Therefore, you may need to add only one question – “My requested status in the WSU Extension (insert county) Master Gardener Program for (year) is:”

To make that question available to view in Manage Users, you will temporarily add it to the Membership Application in your county, as follows:

1. In your survey, use your cursor to select the text for the question you wish to add to your Manage Users view.
2. Copy the exact question text to your clipboard by selecting Ctrl-C on your keyboard.
3. From the left menu on your Manage group page, click Customize and select Users
4. On the Configure Users page, go to the Membership Application tab
5. Click the blue Add Existing Saved Fields button on the right menu
6. In the Add Saved Custom Field pop-up, paste the exact question text from your clipboard into the Search By Field Label box by placing your cursor in the box and selecting Ctrl-V on your keyboard; then click Search
7. Scroll through any copies of that question and find the one with YOUR county group name in the Created By column.
8. When you find your question, click the checkbox next to the question, then scroll to the bottom of the window and click Add.
9. You will be returned to the Membership Application, where you will now see the question added to the Membership Application tab; confirm it’s the correct question, then click Save at the bottom right menu.
10. From the left menu, click Users, then select Manager Users.
11. From the Manager Users screen, click Configure Layout.
12. In the Layout Settings pop-up, scroll to find the question you just added to the Membership Application.  Click the checkbox next to your question and drag it to the top of the list, positioning it where you want to see the response (e.g., place it next to MG Volunteer Status)
13. Scroll back to the bottom of the Layout Settings pop-up and click Apply.
14. You will now see a column for that question and its responses in your Manage Users view.
15. In the above example, you will now be able to see Requested MG Status next to Current MG Status, so you can update Current MG Status in Manage Users view if the Requested MG Status is approved.

IMPORTANT:  Avoid inviting new members to claim their GivePulse accounts while you have Certification Application questions added to your Membership Application.  The questions will be presented to new members in the Membership Application when claiming their accounts.  After you finish processing Certification Applications, it’s important to remove the Certification questions from the Membership Application; instructions for doing so will be provided at the end of this section.

Use Manage Users to identify non-responders

Once you have key Certification Application questions visible in your Manage Users view, you can quickly and easily export your Manage Users view and filter the results to identify volunteers who have not yet responded to the Certification Application question.

Remove key survey questions from the Membership Application

After your certification processing has been completed, remove your Certification Application question(s) from the Membership Application, so they don’t appear there when new members claim their accounts.

1. Click Customize in the left menu and select Users
2. Go to your Membership Application tab
3. Identify the Certification questions that should be removed from your Membership Application; hover over a question and click the X in the upper right corner to remove it.
4. At the bottom of the right menu, click Save.

Note: You should see only the Certification questions you’ve added to the Membership Application; you should not be able to see the standard Membership Application questions, which are managed at the state level.  If, for some reason, you can see standard Membership Application questions, however, please do not remove those.

Certification criteria

At a minimum the following certification criteria must be met by each Extension Master Gardener volunteer requesting certification:

1. Completion and recording in GivePulse of required service and continuing education hours, based on current year MG Status as set forth in the MG Handbook and the Annual Certification Policy published by the Statewide Program Leader
2. Completion of a background check, if required in current year
3. Adherence to the code of conduct and commitment to uphold the WSU EMG mission and value

In addition, Program Coordinators may set and communicate county level certification requirements, as needed.

Emeritus status criteria

Emeritus Master Gardener status is for volunteers who will no longer be able to meet minimum requirements in future years to retain Certified Master Gardener status.

Volunteers requesting Emeritus status for the coming year must have completed one or more of the following:

1. At least 10 years of service, or
2. At least 500 hours of service, or
3. Exemplary service, as determined by the Program Coordinator

Note:  Once Emeritus status is granted, a volunteer may not return to Certified status.

Upon determining whether volunteers have earned certification and whether any requests for Emeritus status shall be granted, document each volunteer’s new certification status in GivePulse, as follows.

Updating certification status for existing Certified and Emeritus MGs

1. Update the Recertification Year * (Admin) field to January 1 of the new year for which the volunteer has certified
2. Update the Background Check (completion date) (Admin) field, if applicable, by entering the date of the most recent background check

Granting first certification to current year MG Interns

1. Complete the Recertification Year * (Admin) field by entering January 1 of the new year for which the volunteer has certified
2. Change the MG Volunteer Status field from Intern to Certified
3. If not already completed, update the Background Check (completion date) (Admin) field with the date of the most recent background check

Granting Emeritus status

1. Document the change to Emeritus status by adding a Note in the volunteer’s profile
2. Attach a copy or image of the volunteer’s request for Emeritus status in their profile
3. Change the MG Volunteer Status field from Certified to Emeritus

Documenting volunteers who have NOT applied for or have NOT earned certification

1. Add a Note in the volunteer’s profile indicating why they were not certified for the new year; the Note should specifically indicate their current year MG Volunteer Status (Intern, Certified or Emeritus) so you will have a record of their last status before being moved to Inactive
2. Change the MG Volunteer Status field to Inactive
3. If you wish, you may add a short Quick Note (in addition to the profile Note)
4. Add the Archived tag to the volunteer record
5. Archive the volunteer
6. Do NOT change or clear the Recertification Year * (Admin) field; this should continue to reflect the last year for which the volunteer successfully certified

Important Reminder: After your Certification decisions have been documented in GivePulse, remember to go back and remove any Certification questions that were added to your Membership Application for the purpose of viewing them in the Manage Users view.  For instructions see Section I: Review Survey Response, Subsection: Remove key survey questions from the Membership Application.