Engaging recent graduates of alumni engagement can be a challenging aspect. Here’s a look at the 6 effective strategies peers use to engage their young alumni.
If you’re someone handling alumni engagement for your school, you know that engaging recent graduates is one of the most challenging aspects. So, before diving right in, let’s take a closer look at why young alumni need to be engaged and its long-term impact.
Young alumni have the potential to turn into future major donors. But, they must be approached the right way. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first donation to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, was at the age of 23 and the amount was $5. Since then, he has donated close to $1.8 billion to support research, teaching, and financial aid at the university.
Yep, that’s accurate.
Chances are this segment of your alumni population won’t respond to your fundraising asks for the next few years. They are just starting a career and personal financial problems such as paying off student loans or relocating to a new city for college are likely to get prioritized over donating to or engaging with their alma mater.
While young alumni may not be the biggest contributors over the next few years, they can be of great help to your school by offering you their valuable time, in the form of volunteer work and internships.
Here’s a look at the 6 most effective strategies employed by schools to engage their young alumni.
While this is something that is recommended irrespective of whether or not your school is catering to young alumni, having a responsive alumni website is especially great for capturing the attention of the younger generation. As the younger generation is more inclined towards using mobile devices, being able to easily access all the websites and their resources on their devices helps provide more opportunities for them to engage with their alma mater.
Take a look at Nicholls State University’s up-to-date and easily accessible mobile-friendly website below.
As recent graduates, your alumni already have a lot to worry about. The key to building a lasting relationship is to address these issues and provide them with valuable support. This could be in the form of workshops, job prospects, mentorships, social networking mixers, or even emotional support.
A time-tested technique for finding out what your young alumni would be most interested in, alumni surveys are great at saving time and effort. Creating a short survey asking alumni what they would like to hear about from their alma mater is an effective way of grabbing attention and delivering value. There are various tools such as Typeform and Survey Monkey that can help you create short surveys. For example, The College of Idaho took a short survey that revealed ‘Financial Planning’ as the most pressing concern for a majority of young alumni. Based on the results of this survey, the college organized a free workshop on Saving Money & Paying Off Debts, as a way to support its young alumni.
Instead of the usual marketing email blasts, focused emails targeted at specific segments of alumni are bound to yield better results. The most effective way to keep young alumni engaged with emails is to provide them with consistent value, right from the start. If you are trying to engage alumni who recently graduated, targeting them with emails that showcase relevant job opportunities is the best way to do it.
Take a look at how T. Howard Foundation, a non-profit organization based out of Silver Spring, Maryland, shares job opportunities with its young alumni via emails.
According to a recent study published by Broadband Search, 79% of college graduates use at least one social media site.
Social media is a great tool for engaging young alumni not just because of its high accessibility and adaptability but also because of the flexibility it provides. There is no limit to how creative you can get and that’s what resonates the most with young alumni. Incorporating more video content and trying to create campaigns that urge alumni to take action are ideal components of a great social media strategy. Here’s how William Peace University drew the attention of its young alumni and got them talking about their upcoming reunion.
While having a digital engagement strategy in place is pivotal, completely depending on it is not recommended. In-person interaction is a fundamental part of fostering lasting relationships with young alumni. Here’s how our customer, Charlotte Christian School got this right.
As a way of extending support to young alumni, Charlotte Christian School sent out a video featuring beloved teachers wishing alumni good luck ahead of their exams and conveying to them how much they care. The video also acts as a special appeal for alumni to come back to school for a wonderful time with their teachers and friends.
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Schools around the world invest greatly in building ‘personal relationships’ with alumni but, when it comes to outreach, many often overlook this critical aspect.
Have you also been taking the umbrella approach and using generic messaging for your constituents?
In today’s digital age where we receive hundreds of spam emails daily, the chance of your generic email cutting through the clutter is low.
Let’s look at another situation: would a 1970 grad feel the same way as a 2010 grad about your upcoming K-Pop music night event?
You get my point.
So, what’s the best approach for reaching out to diverse alumni?
Instead of the usual marketing email blasts, we’ve witnessed schools achieve greater success by incorporating personalized email campaigns for targeted groups of alumni.
Each segment of your alumni population will have different needs and would engage more with your institution if you catered to those needs. For instance, alumni who just graduated from the university might be interested in internship updates via emails but the same outreach will be ineffective for older alumni who are already well settled in their careers.
Each segment of your alumni population can give back in different ways to the institution. Older alumni who are at respectable positions in their careers are more likely to respond to giving asks. On the other hand, younger alumni who are fresh out of college are more likely to provide value to their alma mater in the form of volunteer support.
Segregating alumni on the basis of class years is a common approach employed by institutions worldwide. Here’s how Samueli Academy, a free, public charter high school in Santa Ana, targeted its Class of 2019 alumni with a personalized email campaign and witnessed increased alumni engagement.
Creating content and valuable resources based on different industries or specialties alumni work in is a great way to keep alumni engaged. This allows alumni to connect and network with fellow alumni for professional development, new business opportunities, etc. Take a look at how Loma Linda School of Medicine creates groups based on its alumni’s work specializations.
Another way to segment alumni is on the basis of shared interests. For example, all former football players can be engaged with content around the current team or exclusive fundraising campaigns asking for their contributions to the sports fund. See how Tennessee State University utilizes affinity groups to segregate alumni based on their interests.
Alumni segmentation on the basis of the location is especially of great value when you want to do an event in multiple locations. Some institutions have formal alumni chapters but some also have regional alumni volunteers who help engage alumni in their location.
Take a look at Archer Center’s city-wise alumni chapters below.
While there is no limit to the number of alumni segments that can be created, it is vital to consider these two factors before you get started:
Some institutions might have a large staff handling advancement whereas some might just be a single-person advancement shop. The number of segments you can handle is largely dependent on the staff members and resources available to manage the unique engagement needs of these groups.
The most important aspect of creating an alumni community is identifying what your alumni would benefit from. For instance, if your school had an active photography club, chances are, your alumni would love to reconnect with fellow alumni who were a part of that club.
While all of this may sound overwhelming, alumni community platforms like Almabase can simplify the entire process for you.
Why is it important to segment your alumni population to serve their needs more effectively?
Read how personalized, targeted emails and alumni segmentation can help improve your outreach and boost open and click-through rates for your alumni email campaigns.
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Alumni are an institution’s most precious asset. However, the reality is that while alumni will often have a sense of belonging to their alma mater, a constant connection is needed to cultivate this relationship. While there are a bunch of ways to achieve this, today, we’re focusing on one of the most effective communication methods employed by schools and universities around the globe – email communication.
While there’s a plethora of information on best practices for email marketing, our experience with various schools has helped us understand email best practices specific to alumni.
Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.
- David Newman
While email communication plays a crucial role in the digital engagement strategy of many institutions, the rate of success for each school may differ greatly. The difference lies in the approach that each school takes. Here’s a list of tested techniques that have brought success to most schools:
To be able to engage alumni via emails, it is pivotal to maintain updated email lists. Over time, alumni contact information is bound to get outdated. For your email campaigns to have higher alumni engagement rates, it is integral that your emails reach the right people, and that’s only possible if you have updated information about your alumni.
Whether you’re a small school or a larger university, there are various ways to keep your alumni database up-to-date. Tap on the banner below to read more about the complete list of all the database update techniques that are typically employed by schools and their relative benefits.
While creating an email, it is important to be able to evaluate what alumni would value. Sticking to a template might look like the easiest route, but schools have witnessed greater success with personalized email campaigns. One way of personalizing your emails is by segmenting alumni based on gender, class year, and other relevant criteria.
It’s always a good practice to use a real name as opposed to a common name such as ‘Your Alumni Association’ as the sender of your emails. Using a person who your alumni may already be familiar with is ideal. You could even add in a picture and signature of the person at the end of the email to make the email seem more genuine.
Other than the high risk of your alumni email landing in spam, adding multiple links often comes at the expense of having an unfocused message, severely impacting your click-through rates. Sticking to a clear call-to-action button is the best practice.
Mercy High School, Burlingame does an amazing job at targeting its alumni with emails that have a clear call-to-action.
While we discussed how personalized email campaigns can help boost alumni engagement rates, monthly alumni newsletters and weekly updates have also proven to be highly effective. Monthly alumni newsletters and weekly update emails act as a source for alumni to stay updated with all that’s happening at their school and often evoke nostalgia and a sense of pride.
Here’s how Upper St. Clair School District & Taylor’s University keep their alumni engaged with informational monthly newsletter emails.
This is probably the most basic yet the most essential part of creating a successful email campaign. Optimizing your emails so that they appear in your alumni’s inbox at the right time and in the right format is critical to your campaign’s success. Here are some key aspects that should be ensured with respect to email optimization:
1. Ensure that alumni receive your emails during their active hours. If your alumni are in a different time zone, scheduling your emails is highly recommended. Analyzing past email delivery statistics might help in scheduling the timings for your new campaigns.
2. While attaching any images to your email, it is recommended to stick to a maximum file size of 1 MB.
3. Subject lines play an integral part in the success of any email marketing campaign. Including your alumni’s first name within the subject line is a great practice that we’ve seen schools achieve success with. Adhering to shorter, to-the-point subject lines is also highly recommended.
When it comes to engaging subject lines, QuestBridge Academy hands-down wins the game. For its September Bar Night event, the institution reached out to its alumni with a simple, yet highly effective subject line:
Here are some outreach email templates to kickstart your emails:
Subject: Connect & Grow: Your [Institution Name] Network
Dear [Alumni Name],
Hello from [Institution Name]! We hope you're doing well.
Did you know your connection to [Institution Name] offers a powerful way to boost your career? Our alumni network is full of people in many different fields, ready to connect.
We've made it easy for you to use this network:
- Network Platform: [Link to platform] - Join our special online platform to find and connect directly with fellow alumni for advice, opportunities, and shared experiences.
- Virtual Event: [Link to event details] - Sign up for our next online networking event. It's a great chance to meet alumni working in specific areas you're interested in.
- Career Help: [Link to career services page] - Visit our career services page just for alumni. You can find job postings, get tips, and learn about workshops to help you move forward.
Make the most of your [Institution Name] connections today.
Best regards,
The [Institution Name] Alumni Relations Team
Subject: Support [Institution Name]: Help Students Succeed
Dear [Alumni Name],
We're reaching out because you can make a real difference at [Institution Name]. Your time here helped shape your path, and now you can help shape the path of current students.
Supporting [Institution Name] is a direct way to invest in the future. Your contribution, no matter the size, can help provide essential resources:
- Give Now: [Link to donation page] - A financial gift helps fund scholarships for deserving students, support important research, and improve campus facilities.
- Volunteer: [Link to volunteer page] - If you have time to share, consider volunteering. You could mentor a student, help at an event, or offer your professional skills.
Every bit of support helps us give students the best possible experience.
Thank you for considering how you can help.
With sincere gratitude,
The [Institution Name] Advancement Team
Subject: Stay Connected to [Institution Name]
Dear [Alumni Name],
Life after graduation takes you to new places, but your connection to [Institution Name] and the people you met here is still important. We love sharing what's happening and hearing about your journey.
Here are a few simple ways to stay part of the [Institution Name] community:
- Read Our Magazine: [Link to magazine] - Check out the latest alumni magazine for campus news, stories about fellow graduates, and updates on upcoming events.
- Follow Us: [Links to social media profiles] - Connect with us on social media for daily updates, photos, and a chance to interact with the wider community online.
- Find a Local Chapter: [Link to chapter list] - Look for an alumni chapter in your area. It's a great way to meet up with other alumni near you for social events and activities.
- Update Info: [Link to update form] - Please take a moment to make sure we have your current contact information so you don't miss out on important news and invitations.
We value your connection. Stay in touch!
Warmly,
The [Institution Name] Alumni Relations Team
Subject: Keep Learning with [Institution Name]
Dear [Alumni Name],
The world keeps changing, and learning new things is key to staying ahead. As a graduate of [Institution Name], you have access to special resources to help you keep learning and growing in your career and personal life.
We offer opportunities designed just for our alumni:
- Online Courses: [Link to course platform/library] - Explore our library of online courses to learn new skills or brush up on topics relevant to your field.
- Webinars/Workshops: [Link to events page] - Attend online sessions led by our faculty or industry experts on a variety of interesting topics.
- Library Access: [Link to library access info] - Access many of the academic databases and publications available through the campus library from wherever you are.
- Mentorship: [Link to mentorship program details] - Whether you want to share your experience or learn from someone further along in their career, our mentorship program connects alumni.
Keep your mind sharp and continue your learning journey with [Institution Name].
Sincerely,
The [Institution Name] Professional Development Team
Subject: Share Your [Institution Name] Story
Dear [Alumni Name],
Your time at [Institution Name] gave you unique experiences and memories. Your positive stories are the best way to show others what makes our institution special and why it's a great place to learn.
We invite you to share your pride and help us tell the [Institution Name] story:
- Share Your Story: [Link to testimonial submission form or social media hashtag] - Tell us about your favorite memories or how [Institution Name] impacted you. We might feature your story!
- Represent Us: [Link to volunteer page] - Volunteer to represent [Institution Name] at college fairs or other events to talk to prospective students about your experience.
- Engage Online: [Links to social media profiles] - Like, share, and comment on our social media posts. This helps our news reach more people.
- Refer a Student: [Link to referral form] - If you know a student who would be a great fit for [Institution Name], encourage them to apply and let us know.
Your voice is important in helping us build a strong future for [Institution Name].
Best regards,
The [Institution Name] Communications & Alumni Relations Team
We hope we’ve given you some new ideas and motivations to make the most out of your email channels. If you’re looking for a tool to streamline your communication efforts, let us know and we’d love to show you how we can help.
6 ways to increase alumni engagement over emails
Find the email best practices to increase alumni engagement for your school, college, or university. Here's the list of techniques for alumni email marketing
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Online fundraising can be a deceptively tricky subject. While the term simply refers to the process of raising money online, making the most of this strategy requires a dynamic approach on the part of your school.
When it comes to engaging with alumni, in particular, it’s doubly important to have a robust online fundraising strategy in place.
For this reason, your team should take a look at how you fundraiser online right now and decide whether or not you’re getting all you can out of this strategy.In this article, we’ll help you begin this process by discussing:
1. How your alumni engagement strategy can benefit from online fundraising
2. Online fundraising trends you should be using
3. Ways to boost alumni giving through online fundraising
4. Fundraising software tools that can improve your alumni engagement.
Ready to master online fundraising and improve your alumni engagement tactics? Let’s dive in!
Making the most of your online fundraising capabilities should be your first priority when perfecting how you engage with alumni!
As a school, your institution's fundraising needs and limitations likely look very different from other nonprofit organizations. For one thing, your core donor base (your alumni) are often spread far and wide across the country.
This means that to connect with alumni supporters, you’ll have to go the extra mile to meet them where they are.
The best way to do this? By fundraising online, your team can easily reach geographically-diverse alumni. This starts with accepting donations online, but also allows your school to regularly interact with your supporters via email, social media and more!
When your school makes the effort to interact with supporters online, you avoid the trap of remaining “out of sight and out of mind” to these individuals.
Through frequent online interaction, alumni are more likely to donate on a regular basis, as well as more likely to encourage their friends and family to give to your institution.
In addition to strengthening ties between your school and your alumni, online fundraising has several other key benefits:
1. Low overhead cost: After your initial investment in online fundraising software, online fundraising proves to more than make up for its upfront cost. Since everything is virtual, your team can allocate less personnel to manage your online fundraising efforts, as well as save money on physical marketing materials.
2. Simple setup: Once you pick the right software, your team can easily set up your online fundraising tools with little stress. Many services offer consultation during the implementation process, or you might lean on your fundraising consultant during this time for their expertise.
3. Increased donor knowledge: Another reason why online fundraising tools are so effective is because they can provide unmatched insight into your supporters. With every interaction your school has with alumni online, you will collect important data that can inform your engagement tactics moving forward.
The bottom line: By investing time and energy into perfecting your school’s online fundraising strategy, you’ll have an easier time reaching alumni donors while saving money and effort. Even better, when you do connect with these donors, your interactions will be more streamlined and more informative than traditional methods allow.
With the right strategy, your school can benefit from powerful new trends in online fundraising that simply can’t be matched by traditional fundraising methods.
In this section, we’ll highlight tactics that make the most of online fundraising’s dynamic potential by going further than simply accepting donations.
First, we’ll go over social fundraising techniques like crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns, and then we’ll show you how online fundraising can be paired with on-site events to help your school make the donation more accessible to your alumni supporters.
1. Crowdfunding. With the right crowdfunding software, your school can grow your donor base while raising money. Look for tools that allow you to easily brand donation pages, share campaigns across social media and email, and ones with team crowdfunding capabilities.
2. Peer-to-peer: Tapping into your alumni’s social network, donors can help your school reach more eyes online. By associating campaigns with your alumni fundraisers, potential supporters are more inclined to give since they’ll more closely associate your school with their friend, family member, or colleague.
1. Kiosks and card swipers: By investing in an on-site donation kiosk or card swiper, your team can accept donations from those who prefer to pay with a credit or debit card. Gifts are then transferred online to your bank account, so you never have to worry about depositing checks or keeping track of cash donations. You might use a kiosk or card swiper at events like walkathons, talent shows, charity auctions etc.
2. Live event streaming: Another dynamic way to raise money for your cause is to stream fundraising events online. Alumni who can’t make it will be able to participate in the festivities from their computer or mobile device, and because of your online donation tools, giving will be as easy as the click of a button.
The bottom line: As part of your fundraising strategy, your school shouldn’t discount tactics that marry the best parts of in-person fundraising methods with the functionality and ease-of-use that online fundraising provides.
Looking to optimize your online giving channels to boost alumni donations?
What’s so unique about online fundraising is that your team can truly customize the giving experience to make donation as seamless as possible for your alumni donors.
Check out some of these online fundraising best practices to maximize your alumni’s donor potential:
1. Offer simple donation forms: You don’t want to lose out on potential alumni gifts because your online donation form was too lengthy, confusing, or required too much effort to complete. Be sure to make your online donation forms as streamlined as possible and don’t require givers to register for an account to make a donation.
2. Encourage recurring giving: The quickest way to make sure you’re able to get the most out of your fundraising efforts? Prompt alumni to opt-into recurring giving when they make a donation. Give them the freedom to set the gift amount and the donation schedule so that they’re able to tailor the process to their preferences.
3. Match alumni gifts: With the right software, your school can increase your fundraising potential by receiving matched gifts from alumni who work for corporations that have a matching gift program in place. One convenient way to do this is to direct alumni to a matching gift database tool on your school’s website or to implement an automated matching gift software to streamline the process for your school’s team.
The bottom line: Offering online donation channels to your alumni donors will boost giving, but only if your school is able to make the most of these dynamic giving tools.
One of the most important parts of perfecting your school’s online fundraising strategy is picking the right online fundraising software to help you get the job done.
With all the options out there, it can be tricky to know what software to invest in and what kind of functionality you’ll need to stay on top of your online fundraising game.
Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of all the tools you need to look out for when picking your software!
Donation pages are the bread and butter of your online fundraising efforts. To make sure you reach the maximum number of alumni donors, your team should be sure to invest in online fundraising software that provides you with dynamic tools to customize your pages.
Invest in a software solution that allows you to:
1. Brand pages to your school with colors, logos, pictures, video, etc.
2. Integrate donation pages with social media to make them easily shareable
3. Customize donation pages with suggested giving amounts, recurring giving opt-ins, and more.
Having a successful communications strategy in place is the first step to boosting your alumni fundraising online. If your team isn’t able to get the word out to your supporters, your online fundraising efforts will falter.
When choosing which online fundraising software to invest in, keep an eye out for a solution that enables :
1. Automated constituent email that can be customized to your different alumni donor segments
2. Engagement tracking and analytics to help you learn all you can about what strategies work for your supporters
3. Social share buttons that enable your donors to easily broadcast to their social networks once they give
The vast majority of your alumni use their mobile devices as their primary way to access the internet. Don’t miss out on all of these potential alumni donors!
As part of your online fundraising strategy, your school should be sure to have functional mobile giving tools in place. These can include:
1. Donation pages that are optimized for mobile devices
2. Embedded donation pages across your various social media platforms
3. Text giving tools that allow donors to give simply by sending you a customizable keyword.
The bottom line: When choosing online fundraising software, your team should select a platform that offers dynamic tools to meet your alumni engagement needs at every level.
When it comes to alumni engagement, having a next-level online fundraising strategy in place is crucial With these tips in mind, there’s nothing stopping your school from making connections with alumni and raising more than ever before!
Online Fundraising: What You Need to Know to Engage Alumni
Are you ready to master online fundraising and improve your alumni engagement tactics? Take a deep dive into this blog post to get your process right.
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