Alumni Engagement Report
Alumni Engagement Report
Alumni Engagement Report
INTRODUCTION
Alumni engagement is a perennial concern among higher education advancement professionals—
and for good reason: a strong program can not only sustain your institution's annual fund over the
long term, it can also help build your major donor pipeline and provide your school with some of its
most active and effective volunteers.
But how exactly do you build a strong alumni engagement program? If this question were simple to
answer, alumni participation rates north of 40 percent would be the rule, not the exception.
Although institutions of every stripe would stand to benefit from engaging their alumni more
effectively, the challenges of building support among alumni are of particular relevance to small
and mid-size liberal arts colleges. These institutions’ strengths (e.g., historically rich campus cultures
and traditions) and weaknesses (e.g., smaller alumni bases, higher tuition) present them with a
unique set of opportunities and challenges when it comes to engaging their alums.
institutions have specific programs that bring gain a better perspective on the preferences
alumni back to campus to meet with current and behaviors of your future major donors.
students, share stories about their post-graduate
experiences, and explain why they give back.
Alumni Training: Organize an annual volunteer
summit to which all alumni volunteers are
Participation Goals: Prioritizing broad invited for training and networking. Offering
participation over dollars earned can be a young alumni volunteers financial assistance
culture shift for institutions. Alumni more easily to attend the summit, as needed, will increase
connect to the percentage of their peers who attendance and will make the training
give back than dollars raised year-over-year. accessible to all alums who want to participate.
How do you present your fundraising numbers
and celebrate successes? Setting a realistic
Appeals—Part 1: Diversify beyond a "one size
goal can be encouraging and motivating for
fits all" approach to your alumni appeals. You
giving. The Board should be invested in the
can rely on your class managers to provide
participation goals—reaching them is a source of
insight into what type of appeals and tactics
pride for the entire institution.
will resonate with the classes they manage.
Millennials, for example, prefer "asks" that feel
Program Evaluation: Developing a unique more personalized. As an added benefit, this
“alumni engagement score” represents another will also provide your team with more accurate
way to track the effectiveness of your alumni and segmented data.
engagement program and progress over time.
Your team can update this score on an ongoing
Appeals—Part 2: While the proliferation of
basis. We recommend using a variety of key
communications platforms has made it easier
data points (e.g., event attendance, class giving,
for institutions to stay touch with their alumni
frequency of giving, volunteer activity) to ensure
bases, be careful not to bombard them with
that you are receiving the broadest and most
“asks.” Remain selective and strategic, and keep
accurate perspective possible. Additionally,
the balance between appeals and non-appeals
consider tracking young alumni separately to
heavily weighted towards the latter.
ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT: BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS
Restricted Gifts: The annual fund should empower staff to invest in the programming
remain the focal point of your alumni necessary to build a strong program. Alumni
engagement efforts, but experimenting with participation can take years to build, so the
restricted class gifts can often yield surprising Board's investment must be long-term.
results. Class gifts to benefit a specific academic
department or athletic team enable alumni
Board Recruitment: Alumni volunteer activity
donors—especially young alumni—to feel that
should be taken into account when recruiting
their support is having a tangible effect on the
new members to the Board of Trustees (or
institution. Consider conducting special giving
equivalent body). A history of engagement
efforts for restricted needs. This is a good way
with their alma mater can be a strong indicator
to use online giving days or challenges on
of productiveness at the Board level. Highly
platforms such as GiveCampus.
involved candidates will also likely be invested
Recognition: Today, donors of all levels want to in alumni engagement as a strategic priority.
know how their gifts are being used. Make sure
that everyone who has donated to a specific
Commitment to Young Alumni: The Board can
campaign or initiative receives some form of
signal a firm commitment to young alumni
report—even just an infographic—providing
engagement in particular by having one to
insight as to how their money was spent. For
two young alumni represented on its Board of
young alumni, consider reducing the barriers
Trustees. Giving expectations for young alumni
to entry for your leadership giving levels to help
members may be reduced to enable their
lock them in as donors for the long term.
membership.
LEADERSHIP
Alumni Association: A strong alumni
Board association board is a feeder for good Board
Strategic Priority: Board investment in alumni leadership. It also contributes to the culture
giving and participation offers top-down of alumni engagement and allows alums to
support for an important culture shift. Including feel connected to their alma mater through
alumni giving as a strategic priority can a leadership role. A dedicated young alumni
ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT: BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS
relations staff members who focus on the same Alumni today respond better to events that
alumni segments should work closely and are explicit in their “asks.” Rather than burying
collaboratively throughout the year. the focus on fundraising at the bottom of the
invitation, lead with it by highlighting the giving
component. Young alumni, in particular, are
Technology: Innovative new technologies can
highly transactional; you can appeal to them
help mitigate the complexities that come with
by positioning these events as "parties with a
managing your program, which involves keeping
purpose."
track of thousands of individuals, often spread
across the globe. Programs like GiveCampus
enable seamless communication among On-Campus Programming
staff, volunteers, and alumni by simplifying • Reunion weekend is the focal point of
communication and enabling new means of the institution's annual alumni-oriented
leveraging preexisting data and information. on-campus programming. Your alumni
association board should be involved in
ALUMNI EVENTS planning each year's reunion. Create a
specific sub-committee or taskforce to
Overall, your event strategy should employ an
coordinate closely with annual giving and
inclusive approach—invitation lists should not be
alumni relations staff members.
determined by giving level. The majority of your
most "prestigious" and "exciting" events can and • The annual giving and alumni relations
should be attended by a wide swath of alumni, teams should establish specific goals for
from the youngest to the most senior, the least different reunion years. For example, the
affluent to the wealthiest. 25th reunion might be focused on achieving
ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT: BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS
the class's highest ever annual fund Smaller schools can explore joining forces
participation, whereas the 50th reunion with other schools in their region or athletic
might be associated with a planned giving- conference to split costs and build larger
related goal. audiences.
• The most successful institutions look for • Alumni clubs and chapters should host
opportunities to engage alumni beyond annual "Welcome to..." events for alumni
reunion, taking stock of their full suite of from the 10 most recent graduating classes
on-campus programming to connect with who are new to the city.
alumni as deeply as possible. Focus on
events that are multi-generational in nature
• Consider organizing "on the road"-style
(e.g., annual athletic rivalries, homecomings)
events that bring administration and faculty
and involve entire families.
leaders to your most populous alumni cities.
These events provide alumni with campus
Regional Events updates—and make them aware of potential
• When visiting a city/region, the president giving opportunities—while reengaging
should commit to attending one to two them in the intellectual traditions they have
alumni-centric events, where they are missed since graduation.
equally as focused on connecting with
young alumni as with lead alumni donors.
• Consider forming alumni clubs or chapters
for cities with the highest density of alumni.
ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT: BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS
CONCLUSION
Equal parts tactics, strategy, and culture, building a successful alumni engagement program
requires patience and a willingness to experiment. Although there may be no “right” approach
to engaging your alumni, we do believe that even those schools without a history of best-in-
class participation rates can find some measure of success by being intentional and adapting the
guidelines and practices we suggest above to their unique circumstances. In the diverse sector of
higher education, there may be as many ways to effectively engage an alumni base as there are
schools. We hope our research helps you find the solutions that will work best for your institution.
Questions? Contact the study authors to discuss our findings and how you can improve your
alumni engagement program: