Annual volunteer impact on local community
Lipscomb University isn’t just big on service — we’re built on it.
Our founder David Lipscomb was known for his commitment to serving his community and the city of Nashville. Around here, it’s commonly known that he always sought to put others before himself, so much so that he almost lost his life during Nashville’s cholera epidemic in the mid-1800s, while transporting nuns to care for contagious patients around town.
Throughout the university’s history, we have followed this tradition set in place by our founder — a tradition of service-oriented, faith-based care for our community and world. It’s ingrained in all that we do, and it’s what we’ve become known for. In fact, Washington Monthly, the U.S. News & World Report, the Carnegie Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service are just a few of the publications that have recognized our institution for its high rankings in student service volunteer hours, clocking in at an average of 60,000 hours per year.
We are intentional about living out our Christian values and following the life of Christ, putting our knowledge and faith to use to serve others. And we seek to develop the same lifelong commitment in our students, who will go out and continue to build their communities.
Here are some of the opportunities you will have to serve the community of Nashville and beyond at Lipscomb University.
Service Day
Each year, Lipscomb hosts Service Day, an optional event for the whole campus to participate in giving back to its community. Afternoon classes are cancelled and students, faculty and staff volunteers head out to organizations around Nashville to pick up trash, paint, tutor, landscape, clean and engage in other works. Some of the participating organizations include the American Red Cross Association, Churches of Christ Disaster Relief, Habitat for Humanity, Matthew 25, Second Harvest Food Bank, Project Cure and many more. This campus-wide event sees nearly 3,000 service hours accumulated on this single day each year and around 1,000 students who come out to volunteer—and those numbers are growing. It has become one of the most anticipated days of the spring semester.