Alumni Relations for Today Alumni relations has gotten into a groove but that may not be such a good thing. Offering the same programs, following the same procedures as last year (or the past five years) may not work so well in the new era of hyper-connectivity and constant entertainment. I was reminded that alumni…
Category: Concepts in Alumni Relations
In the never-ending quest to engage alumni (and friends), there seems to be growing interest in affinity or shared interest groups. Considering that, how do you go about forming a successful, sustainable group that has impact? Check out the story of the Yale Alumni Non-profit Alliance at: Case Study
With information from over 50 institutions, data from the Impactrics Alumni Relations Assessment provides new insight into trends in alumni engagement. Every institution should consider its own priorities when determining what areas to focus on in 2018 however it can be helpful to understand what others are doing. In brief, keeping in touch with alumni…
The results from the Impactrics Assessment are in: successful alumni organizations offer alumni and students networking opportunities, career support, and mentoring programs. The good news is that it is easier than ever to provide these services with one of many software products now on the market. Having just added @Tassl and @Alumnifire, there are now…
September 11, 2017
Kathy Edersheim
More and more we hear the question: What makes a three- or four-year college education costing tens of thousands of dollars worthwhile – preparing students for a career or providing an opportunity to explore new ideas and learn how to think? At first, the answer seems to be that education must serve both these purposes…
According to the Impactrics Assessment Survey, many alumni relations programs from around the world are putting foundational structures in place as they begin to engage alumni as volunteers and donors. There are some very strong programs that have sustainable structure and programs however they continue to work on metrics and further opportunities for engagement. The…
Regardless of whether you believe that alumni relations and fundraising should be managed separately, as a single unit, or something in between, they share the fundamental goal of generating support for the institution and so they can share techniques for success. McCabe Callahan’s article The Evolution of Philanthropy & the Fall of the Fundraising Pyramid…
Hello World! Markets are global, education is global, and so alumni relations should be global. While most institutions have the majority of their alumni clustered close to campus or within their home country, there is a rapidly growing population of “international alumni” – graduates who returned home from studying abroad or graduates who are working…
It always helps to have a visual interpretation of a concept so I have been working on that for alumni relations. The breadth of alumni activity means that the visualization is also an opportunity to prioritize – there is room for only a limited number of ideas in the graphic. Here is a representation of…