We hear it all the time: students come to UVM because they want to make a difference in the world.

With that generous driving force, it never surprises us to meet students and alumni who find creative, impactful ways to do just that, while they’re on campus and after they graduate.

But when we learned about GiftDrive, we knew that we were on to something special.

It was started by three Grossman School of Business students (one of whom has since graduated), exists to solve a persistent problem for not-for-profit organizations, and presents an opportunity for anyone with access to the internet and the ability to make even a modest gift, to help address needs in ways that are important to them.

We spoke with GiftDrive’s founders Logan Vaughan, Corinne Atwell and Miro Gohacki ’25 in the summer of 2026 to learn about how it came to be, what is happening with it now, and what their hopes for its future are.

What we learned says a lot about the sorts of students who find themselves at UVM, and what can happen at this special place of ours.

Getting Started

Finance and Accounting major Logan points to a precise moment that the idea for GiftDrive came into being.

He had wanted to participate in a local “Christmas Angel Tree” program, through which ornaments hang on a Christmas tree with the specific items that the clients of an agency are requesting. He found himself wandering around a big box store, having “picked a tag off the tree for a child in need,” but remembers the challenges of finding the specific wish-list items, in the right sizes, the right quantities, and then the frustration of having to wait in long holiday season lines.

In a summary that is familiar to anyone who follows entrepreneurial inspirations, he recalls walking out thinking “there's got to be a better way to do this!”

The idea of making it easier for donors to connect directly with non-profit wish-lists took shape.

But it wasn’t until taking an entrepreneurship course with Associate Professor and Steven Grossman Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship Felipe Massa and connecting with Associate Professor Erik Monsen, that he started thinking of it as a possible business, “a real thing.”

A Student-Run Business Built on Doing Good

The way it works is simple: supporters and donors log on to GiftDrive.org and choose the Find a Drive link to look for the organization they’re hoping to make a gift on behalf of. It’s easy for people to donate, and also free for non-profits to provide their clients what they’re requesting.

Helping others is something that came naturally to Logan. Growing up in Williston, Vermont, he was involved in Boy Scouts, involved in his local church, and helped out at the local food shelf Similarly, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Corinne Atwell (who grew up outside of Philadelphia) was a Girl Scout who was also very involved in her community. Corinne credits her mother with getting her to Vermont, and with encouraging her to make a difference in her adopted state.

Miro said that he’s long carried around the idea that he wanted to have the biggest impact on society as possible, likely through technology and software. He and Logan sat next to each other on the first day of that fateful entrepreneurship class and when Logan offered this idea, it was “more or less the perfect storm to get it off the ground.”

The team built the initial version of the website as a proof of concept for the class, but then, Miro recalled, “we had this ‘maybe we should just try it’ sort of moment when the class ended, and over the next nine months or so we built out the initial version of the website.”

It was a leap of faith for the trio. There was a time they couldn’t even let anyone test it and they couldn’t really know if it was going to work until it was live online, Miro remembers.

“But then it did and it worked!”

Vermont is a place especially well-suited for a venture like theirs, Corinne humbly affirms. “I was a little bit nervous going out into the community as someone from out of state. Vermont is made up of such strong communities. But learning how much people here care and look out for their neighbors here made it easy to become attached to doing something that mattered.”

“It's an amazing feeling to be able to do something good as part of a business degree, especially in this climate.”

The team was featured on UVM Extension's Across the Fence in December 2025.

What’s Happening Now

It was a busy summer between spring and fall semesters when we spoke.

A grant from the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships made it possible for Logan to devote himself to GiftDrive full time, and to hire three additional interns through the Vermont Innovation Accelerator.

Corinne, a Marketing and Entrepreneurship major, was in an internship with UVM’s Davis Center, and spending her spare time focusing on marketing and outreach for their project.

Meanwhile, co-founder Miro was working full-time for Beta Technologies, sandwiching programming and tech support into early mornings and late nights.

The difference they're making makes the hard work and long hours worth it.

Logan reflected: “Now that we've started running the business and getting feedback from organizations, it really solidifies that for me that I want to do things in my career that are good for the world … Like when we get an e-mail from an organization that says that GiftDrive has saved them thousands of dollars out of their budget that could now go towards helping other people, that's pretty amazing.”

“That we’re able to have some kind of impact like that makes me get up early in the morning and be like, I want to go work my tail off to accomplish these things to help other people.

“And I think that's a lot of the spirit at UVM in general as well.”

UVM Grossman School Faculty Supporting at Every Step

UVM is a place where you find yourself with people who want to do things that actually make the world a better place,” Logan offered.

And though the nucleus of the idea started with him, he knows that that nucleus lives within the caring ecosystem that is the broader university. “I think GiftDrive just kind of fell into our lap because we were in that environment and because it was an opportunity that we really just couldn't pass up,” he said.

Corinne adds that their support and success come right from the business school: “I think that Grossman specifically is highly supportive to ventures with a mission behind them. All the people, the professors, at Grossman and at UVM want to help. And they've done so much in bringing us to where we are.”

Much credit goes to Professors Massa and Monsen, the Grossman school’s two Entrepreneurship professors.

Logan says the two that helped them found the business are probably the team’s, “closest advisors. When we find ourselves in a time of havoc and things are falling apart, we know someone that cares about us and what we're doing and wants to support us -- and will support us and give us the right guidance when something goes wrong or something breaks.

“When we feel like our backs are against the wall, to be able to go and talk to someone that is willing to give their time and their guidance because they care about what we're doing and they care about us and they care about the students at the University of Vermont, well that makes it possible for us to keep going on and figuring out this business of ours.”

That kind of advice lets the team keep their focus where it matters.

Corinne adds, “When we get caught up in little things, issues that don't pertain to our core mission and our goal with our business, Felipe reminds us often, ‘just make it work.’ Like, don't worry about all these external programs and funding and whatever, just focus on the product and make it work and sell it.

And the trio (and their interns and advisors and the organizations they serve) have indeed been making it work. The platform is serving more than 250 non-profits, from Rally Cat’s Cupboard right on UVM campus, across Vermont, and right across the U.S.

What’s Ahead

Now that they’ve built out the foundation of the platform, they’re looking to grow to support as many organizations as possible. That has meant attending non-profit conferences, placing online ads, talking with nonprofits and going to state associations directly. “Just trying to get GiftDrive in front of as many people that can benefit from it as possible,” as Logan puts it.

It may not be the typical collegiate path, but Corinne says that “as students, it's been really interesting to do all of this. We are learning as we're going. And the nonprofit industry is such a specific niche, and it’s been a really fun process to see what's working with marketing and see what's working with sales and how do these organizations want to be spoken to and want to be contacted.

“And to bring it back to UVM, being in a place where we are able to kind of experiment a little bit, troubleshoot, take risks, and learn … we're trying to see what works and what sticks and what can take us as far as we need to go.”

They encourage others to follow suit.

Logan says, “I would highly recommend Entrepreneurship and starting something of your own when you're a student, because for me, Corinne and Miro, it's given us the opportunity to literally learn about every single part of a business. And every single person in their career is going to work in a business in some respect. And this has been an amazing opportunity.”

Miro agrees. He says the confidence and business knowledge he’s gained through his work on GiftDrive taught him how to invest his time and effort while working at local tech firm Beta led to a promotion there, and it has even now led to an opportunity at a new company in San Francisco, which he says was always another dream. He shared over email that he is, “very optimistic about GiftDrive’s future and I expect the experience and knowledge I gain out west will give me incredible leverage to continue growing GiftDrive and expanding the impact it has today,” he concluded.

And, in an especially UVM fashion, it’s an opportunity for students and alumni that is also making the world a bit of a better place.