To combat 2024’s drop in donors, universities are looking to focus on deepening donor relationships in 2025. By taking a targeted, personalized approach, universities hope to build stronger connections with major donors and reignite support from small and medium donors.

For most universities, these donors are alumni, and the key to deepening relationships is designing a compelling alumni engagement strategy. Alumni engagement includes events, volunteering, communication, and more; however, philanthropy only makes up 19% according to recent reports on university funding.

To secure gifts, you will need to take a diversified approach to alumni outreach. In this guide, we’ll explore four ways you can expand and engage your alumni community.

1. Create an alumni society

When students graduate, they enter a community of fellow alumni, tied together by their attendance at your university. Ensure this group feels like a community by forming a structured alumni society.

A valuable alumni society is not only a draw for potential students considering your school, but it also helps you stay in touch with alumni long-term, opening the door to potential gifts. You can create an engaging alumni society by:

• Setting up local chapters. Chances are that many of your students move away after graduation. Ensure that no matter where they are, they have a connection to your university by establishing local chapters. Ask passionate alumni living abroad to volunteer to help organize chapters and provide them with the tools they need to operate independently.
• Providing online resources. Ensure that no matter where alumni are, they have access to resources from your university at their fingertips. This might be an online community where alumni can network, a job board of opportunities perfect for recent graduates, or access to research published by your university. Additionally, be ready for paid members of your staff to lend a hand to ensure your alumni societies have the resources they need to adequately represent your university and create a positive experience for members.
• Hosting campus activities. Bring your alumni back to campus with events planned just for them. Host alumni gatherings on important dates, such as graduation anniversary milestones. These might be events for specific graduation classes or all of your alumni.

An active alumni society allows you to form long-lasting relationships that may lead to meaningful donations. For instance, alumni who are only capable of giving small or medium gifts now may eventually decide to pledge a significant planned gift, or prospective major donors may need to spend time engaging with your alumni society before confirming they want to give to your university.

2. Maintain consistent contact

In order to engage alumni, you need to be able to get in touch with them. From your website to email to social media, universities have a range of communication channels that allow them to reach their former students.

However, it’s still possible for alumni to drift away or even lose contact entirely. This often happens when alumni move away, change addresses, or have any other major life changes during which they may not think to keep your school updated about how to reach them.

If your university is no longer able to contact a significant number of alumni, consider investing in a data append. Appends provide missing information and correct outdated data, like your alumni’s:

• Contact information. Get up-to-date phone numbers, emails, and even social media profiles. This allows you to stay in touch, even as alumni change email addresses, change social media platforms, or update their phones.
• Addresses. Many alumni move after graduation, and with an address append you can discover where they are. This helps with mail communication, as well as setting up local alumni society chapters.
• Employer information. Discover where your alumni are working to send them relevant communications based on their profession. For instance, if an alumni has continued to work in a field they majored in, you might highlight department research or events open to alumni that relate to their sector.

When it comes to how often to contact alumni, you might create a university-wide newsletter that goes out on a weekly or monthly basis. Then, for special events, like Giving Tuesday or your university’s founding anniversary, you might ramp up communication to get more alumni involved.

3. Accept all types of support

As mentioned, philanthropy is just one type of alumni engagement. However, that doesn’t mean donations are the only way alumni give back. To connect with supporters, present your alumni with a range of ways to get involved.

A few types of engagement opportunities you might promote include:

• Mentorships. Connect alumni with current students through mentorships. Reach out to alumni to highlight students at your university who are interested in their field and invite them to lend a helping hand as they get ready to enter the job market. Many alumni are likely to remember their own experiences after graduating and want to support the next class of graduates going through the same thing.
• Event attendance. Host a variety of interesting events that appeal to alumni. These might be academic workshops and lectures or entertainment-focused, like book readings or orchestra performances. These opportunities bring alumni together and can bring in revenue if you charge a ticket price.
• Networking. Set up an online network for your alumni. Then, encourage them to complete profiles and reach out to one another. This can help alumni find job prospects, reconnect with old classmates, and discover new opportunities to engage with your university.

Some alumni may eventually become donors, while others will stick to supporting you through their preferred method. Both options can help your university build a vibrant community of support.

4. Highlight alumni impact

Alumni give to their former universities for a range of reasons, but chief among them is the desire to create a positive experience for new students. Encourage support by highlighting what your school is able to accomplish with alumni gifts and how meaningful these donations are to students.

For instance, you might:

• Have current students reach out. Get your current students to help out with fundraising by writing and sending emails to alumni. For instance, you might have a student contact alumni who share their major or attended a club they were a part of.
• Share photos and videos. Show alumni how things have changed but also stayed the same at your university by sharing photos and videos of the latest happenings at your university.
• Host campus tours. Invite alumni back to campus to reminisce and meet up with one another. You might host tours for new buildings, during special events, or for alumni who have provided major gifts.

Demonstrating impact is a key part of making a case for support. Be sure to provide facts and statistics to show why donations matter empirically, but also always provide context with examples and stories to allow alumni to better visualize their support.

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Engaged alumni are one of your university’s greatest resources. Maintain these connections by staying in touch and providing a wide range of involvement opportunities.