See how a small team at SUNY New Paltz overhauled alumni engagement, hosting 25+ events a year with smarter tech and fresh event formats.
Discover AI Summary
When you think of a nearly 200-year-old institution like SUNY New Paltz, you think of history and tradition — and rightly so.
But what makes them stand out today is how they are building on that foundation with fresh ideas and a modern approach to alumni engagement.
At a recent webinar, Alyson Hummer (Alumni Engagement Officer) and Angelica McIntyre (Associate Director of Operations and Research) shared how they are reimagining alumni events to create even stronger connections.
Nestled in the scenic Hudson Valley of New York, SUNY New Paltz is home to about 74,000 alumni and 120,000 total constituents. They have a small but mighty advancement team, with just 3.5 staff members dedicated to alumni relations (one of them part-time, of course).
And yet, despite its size, New Paltz hosts an impressive 25+ events every year. Some noteworthy events include:
• 40 Under Forty Awards: Celebrating rising alumni stars.
• Alumni Reunion: Their biggest and most complex event, drawing 380+ registrations in 2024.
• Regional gatherings: Connecting alumni pockets across states like California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, and New York.
• Distinguished Speaker Series and Hudson Valley Future Summit: Big ideas and timely conversations.
• Golf tournaments, development gatherings, and student-alumni events: Keeping alumni connected at every stage.
Alyson and Angelica decided to rethink their approach to events altogether, and here’s what changed:
• Shift the focus from class year to career field and major: Instead of organizing reunions by graduation year, they connected alumni through shared professions and passions, leading to more meaningful interactions.
• Lean into affinity groups like Greek life: Greek organizations already had strong bonds. New Paltz tapped into that loyalty, driving greater attendance and enthusiasm.
• Invite students and faculty to alumni events: Alumni valued the chance to mentor students and reconnect with faculty, making events feel even more rewarding.
• Consistent, transparent communication: From clear email branding to setting the right expectations upfront, every event invitation helped alumni feel informed and welcomed.
Behind the scenes, the old way of managing events was becoming unsustainable.
• Event setup was slow and complicated
• Registrations sometimes crashed the system, leading to frustrated alumni
• Manual data entry after events led to errors and lost records
• Finance reporting was inefficient
• Check-ins were done manually using paper sheets
Simply put, they needed a better way to scale their impact without scaling the chaos.
Reimagining the experience was one thing. Executing it smoothly was another. That’s where Almabase came in. After switching to Almabase, SUNY New Paltz was able to:
• Streamline event setup to under 10 minutes for most events.
• Simplify registrations and payments, avoiding crashes and frustrations.
• Integrate seamlessly with Raiser’s Edge NXT, eliminating tedious manual data work.
• Enable instant check-ins, even for walk-in guests.
• Create a better experience for both their team and their alumni.
Alumni consistently rated the registration process highly, with an average score of 4.6/5.
In just 10 months, they completed 21 events through Almabase!
🎁They also added a "gift ticket" option to every event registration page and have already seen an uptick in spontaneous alumni donations.
Success didn’t happen overnight. While Almabase made event management much simpler, Alyson and Angelica co-led the rollout, introduced staff in phases, and set up easy processes so that everyone on the team could confidently create events with minimal training.
Want to learn more? Watch our recent webinar with the team at SUNY New Paltz ⬇️
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See how modern advancement teams bring alumni engagement and fundraising together.
Recently when we spoke with some advancement leaders about how they manage complex events like homecoming year after year, a common issue emerged: they are often stuck switching between different workflows for managing events and using various tools to send invites, especially when the team is already knee-deep in the preparation of the big event.
But what if there was a way to make sending invites, managing guests, and tracking invite statuses easier and more efficient?
We hear you loud and clear. That's precisely why we’ve simplified the way you send invites!
Managing events communication has always been a hassle, hasn't it? Remember the last time you had to move between different tools just to send an email leading to a fragmented user experience?
The new invites dashboard lets you send invites and manage your guests effortlessly in one place. You no longer need to switch between systems anymore— just add and manage guests by sending personalized invite links unique to each recipient, and tracking them-—all in a single dashboard.
Tracking RSVPs, monitoring invite status, and sending follow-up emails manually can be a drain on your time and energy. The new invites workflow changes that. You can now schedule new invitations and set up follow-up email campaigns on autopilot, eliminating the need to create and send invites from scratch each time and saving you countless man-hours.
Setting up your invite workflow is only half the battle won. Tracking the performance of your invitation workflow is equally crucial to understand your guests and improve your future campaigns. With the invitee reports, you can see the status of your invitations at a glance. You can further use these insights to personalize your follow-ups and create targeted strategies, to drive more registrations
Planning a board meeting or an exclusive gala for top donors? You can now make these events invite-only for a select group. Each guest will receive a personalized invite link that expires after they register, keeping everything private and exclusive. This will help you manage your guest list smoothly and ensure your events remain secure.
Managing big events doesn’t have to be stressful or complicated anymore. With our all-in-one dashboard, you can easily send invites, track RSVPs, and even host private events without jumping between different tools. It’s a simpler, more efficient way to keep everything in one place, saving you time and making sure your events run smoothly. Now, you can focus on what really matters: making your events memorable.
An easier way to manage your event communications: Simplify invites, RSVPs, and guest tracking—all in one place
With our all-in-one dashboard, you can easily send invites, track RSVPs, and even host private events without jumping between different tools. It’s a simpler, more efficient way to keep everything in one place, saving you time and ensuring your events run smoothly.
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For advancement teams, managing data isn't just about storing information—it's about harnessing it to drive meaningful alumni engagement and fundraising impact. Cohesive data workflows are crucial for seamless operations; many teams at universities and colleges struggle with fragmented systems, leading to inefficient manual work, inconsistent data, costly errors, and missed growth opportunities.
Unlocking growth starts with building efficient processes that streamline data flow across all platforms. By bringing all engagement and fundraising data into a single, cohesive view within your donor management platform, advancement teams can make data-driven decisions, reduce manual tasks, and make it a single source of truth.
In a bold step towards revolutionizing alumni engagement and fundraising, Almabase has launched TrueSync, a native integration with Blackbaud platforms like Raiser's Edge NXT. This update solves the data disconnect between systems that don't talk to one another, leading to duplicate records and missed opportunities. It's a game-changer that sets a new standard for data integration in the advancement industry.
”To be honest, the word integration has been abused by several software companies. Once you look beyond the marketing, you realize that the integration is exporting excel sheets and importing into your donor management platform. This is the reason we set out to create a truly seamless experience with TrueSync,” said Kalyan Varma, Co-founder and CEO of Almabase.
"Customers want their advancement donor management platform to be a single source of truth and don’t want to go through complex processes to make that happen. This allows them to be data-driven, save time, and grow their fundraising outcomes. TrueSync delivers on this promise.”
While many platforms claim to offer seamless integrations with Raiser's Edge NXT, these integrations often rely on third-party connectors, resulting in a patchwork of data flows that are prone to delays, errors, and duplicate data. These misleading promises can leave advancement teams in a frustrating cycle of constantly cleaning up messy data and manually transferring data across systems.
TrueSync is a direct native integration across Almabase and Raiser's Edge NXT. This approach ensures bi-directional syncing of data without relying on third-party connectors, reducing the risk of errors, duplication, or data silos. Advancement teams can now benefit from a real-time flow of information, enabling more informed decision-making and improved engagement strategies.
Key benefits of TrueSync include:
The launch of TrueSync reflects Almabase's ongoing commitment to innovation in the advancement sector. By providing a more streamlined, cost-effective solution, TrueSync enables teams at universities, colleges, and nonprofits to focus their resources on strategic goals rather than troubleshooting data integration issues.
“TrueSync will significantly improve how institutions manage their data,” added Sudip Datta, Chief Product Officer at Blackbaud . “With this kind of bi-directional native integration between Raiser’s Edge NXT and Almabase, advancement teams can operate with greater efficiency, improve the quality of their data, reduce costs, and ultimately deliver better outcomes for their organizations.”
Illinois Institue of Technology has transformed its alumni data management with TrueSync’s bi-directional sync capability allows the team to quickly push/pull out lists from Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, improving the team's overall administrative workflow.
The integration allows the university’s database team to configure data collection per their needs, ensuring they can structure information effectively and cleanly enrich the data between systems. This eliminates the need to enter data manually and saves the institution valuable time and resources.
Read their complete success story here.
With the launch of TrueSync, advancement teams can eliminate the roadblocks caused by disjointed systems, empower organizations to build stronger relationships with their alumni and donors, create more effective engagement strategies, and unlock new fundraising potential. TrueSync will expand to support Blackbaud CRM customers, too, helping them streamline how they manage their events and online fundraising campaigns.
To learn more about how TrueSync can transform your institution's data-management workflows, visit TrueSync webpage or connect with our team to see it makes managing programs seamless.
Introducing TrueSync: Industry's only two-way, native sync with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT® to change the way you manage data, saving time and costs
Almabase has partnered with Blackbaud to launch TrueSync, a first-of-its-kind native integration with Blackbaud platforms like Raiser's Edge NXT.
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Homecoming is one of those rare chances to make nostalgia work for you — rekindling old ties, reminiscing, and building relationships that go the distance. A strong theme is essential to tie these together and set the vibe.
In this post, we have rounded up great homecoming themes and ideas, fresh takes on traditional homecoming activities, and creative ways to make your homecoming event unforgettable. Check out these awesome alumni homecoming ideas that work for everyone-
A time capsule is all about resurfacing the little moments that made your alumni feel at home—those unexpected corners where friendships formed, ideas took shape, and memories lingered long after the halls emptied. For example, take the Trojan Time Capsule.
For Homecoming 2024, USC carved out a snug recording booth beside Tommy Trojan and invited alumni to hit “record” and describe everything from midnight cram sessions in Doheny to dawn jogs around the Reflecting Pool. Each voice memo wove into a dynamic online soundscape, letting anyone—new students, returning grads, or visitors—virtually stroll through those treasured snapshots of campus life.
You can bring this same magic to your Homecoming. Pick a few of your campus’s most beloved or off-the-beaten spots and set up simple “Echo Booths” there. Then stitch those snippets into an interactive map or soundboard on your event site. Suddenly, “Echoes of the Campus” isn’t just a theme—it’s a living archive of your school’s heart and soul.
Imagine turning your Homecoming into an “Impact Week.” Take Hampton University as an example: their “Pirates Island” Homecoming in October 2024 welcomed 25,000 guests and infused roughly $3 million into Hampton and Coastal Virginia. When alums see their weekend reconnecting them to hometown businesses, it becomes more than nostalgia—it’s pride in tangible impact. That goodwill loop fuels participation: people RSVP earlier, bring friends, and share stories on social media. And when they return home, seeing how their dollars helped the local café or bookstore, they’re more inclined to open their wallets for the next big campaign, whether renovating an old lecture hall or funding the first‑generation student scholarship.
Hybrid homecomings merge on-site excitement with virtual inclusion. At Tokyo Tech’s Homecoming Day 2024, the “Team Tokyo Tech Meeting” welcomed their alumni in person and online. You can replicate this by live-streaming keynote lectures, matches, tailgate parties, opening virtual lounge chats, offering 360° campus tours, watch parties, running real-time polls, and pairing in-hall networking pods with Zoom breakout rooms—so every alum can cheer, connect, and contribute no matter where they are.
Kicking off your Homecoming hype with a signature hashtag and mini‑gigs gets everyone talking. Think along the lines of the GlowGreen Initiative by MSU, where students and alums lit up campus, front porches, windows, rooms, or any space in neon gear to create an online buzz about their 2024 homecoming event, ‘Come Home Spartans,’ which became a huge success.
Likewise, you could launch #BlueOutBrunch, inviting everyone to share sunrise tailgate pics over a live DJ set, or a surprise “Flash Cheer” squad that erupts into a chant in the student union under #RoarWithUs. These hashtag prompts and pop‑up gigs spark shareable moments, build momentum on socials, and have everyone counting down the days until kickoff.
A retro theme never misses the beat: it taps shared nostalgia across generations, needs only simple décor (neon signs, vinyl records, roller skates), and invites everyone to relive their favorite era. For example, Rockford University’s 2023 Homecoming transformed the campus into a nostalgic journey through the decades. Each day of the week celebrated a different era, from the funky 1970s to the early 2000s.
By hosting a retro-themed homecoming, students and alumni get to relive their favorite decades. Whether you stage a glow‑stick dance floor or dust off a classic arcade cabinet, retro vibes guarantee a full house—because who doesn’t love a trip down memory lane?
An inclusivity-themed Homecoming invites every voice to the celebration, and schools like Emory University are showing how it’s done. Their 2024 “Belonging at Emory” Homecoming series featured multicultural food trucks, international music nights, and panel discussions led by alumni from diverse backgrounds. To bring this to your campus, you could host a “Cultures on the Quad” festival with heritage booths, world cuisines, and student performances. Add community-led story circles or alumni spotlight walls featuring first-gen journeys and intersectional experiences. A theme rooted in diversity doesn't just build belonging—it turns your Homecoming into a mirror of the world your students will lead.
Pop culture–themed events are crowd magnets, especially when students and alumni get to step inside their favorite fictional worlds. In 2024, Lander University embraced this trend with their Homecoming theme, “Celebrating the Spirit of the New Millennium.” The event transported attendees back to the early 2000s, highlighting iconic fashion trends, unforgettable music, and the vibrant pop culture of the era.
Whether it’s MTV vibes, Y2K fashion, or throwback chart-toppers, the nostalgia hits different when it’s immersive. Themes like these can transform your typical reunion into a star-studded event. It will bring cinematic flair and nostalgia into the real world, making your Homecoming not just a weekend, but an immersive experience alumni won’t want to miss.
This year, why not let the quad double as a launchpad? Imagine rows of pop-up stalls, each run by alumni who turned dorm room dreams into thriving ventures— app prototypes, travel consultancies, organic bakes, and everything in between. During last year’s homecoming, the University of Rhode Island (URI) introduced the Rhody Marketplace. This initiative brought together alumni entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses at a live event, fostering connections between alumni, students, and the broader university community. So, an Alumni Marketplace isn’t just a celebration of entrepreneurial spirit; it’s a golden intersection of legacy and opportunity. By hosting a homecoming focused on this, you can provide the students a chance to shake hands with future employers, internship mentors, and role models who once sat in the same lecture halls. For alumni, it’s recognition long overdue—proof that their journey matters, and that their alma mater is still cheering them on.
What if homecoming was less about confetti and more about causes? When the community comes together not just to remember the good old days, but also to fundraise and support local needs, it creates real change. At Truman State University, homecoming transcended traditional celebrations by emphasizing charitable giving and making a tangible difference through collective efforts during homecoming festivities.
Unlike the usual fanfare of parades and tailgates, a cause-centered homecoming reimagines what it truly means to return home. It transforms nostalgia into action, inviting alumni not just to relive memories, but to create impact.
A scavenger hunt-themed homecoming event is a fun and interactive way to bring alumni and students together. For example, the University of Wisconsin–Madison hosted a family-friendly scavenger hunt during their homecoming with clues tied to the university’s history and traditions, fostering a sense of nostalgia and community.
While revisiting the favorite campus spots, participants work in teams to solve clues and find hidden items around campus. This kind of event builds school spirit and encourages participants to connect and reminisce about their time at the university.
Whether through the excitement of a scavenger hunt or the heartfelt connection of a nostalgia-themed event, the possibilities for bringing alumni together are endless. By embracing these unique ideas, universities can create lasting memories and strengthen their community spirit year after year.
Homecoming is the perfect moment to reignite alumni connections and build momentum for year-round engagement. We’d love to help you make your upcoming homecoming the kind that keeps alumni returning — not just for the memories, but for the community. With tools built for seamless event management, expansive digital engagement, and online giving, we help you build the homecomings of your dreams.
Want to see it in action? Request a demo and bring your next homecoming to life
Homecoming is an annual tradition primarily observed in high schools and colleges that celebrates school spirit and community by welcoming back alumni or former members to their alma mater.
Homecoming is typically in the fall and is a celebration of your school spirit and community. Prom is typically held in spring and is usually a formal dance marking the end of the high school experience.
It’s a week of dress-up days, pep rallies, parades, and other community events. A football game is usually the main event, with alumni in the stands.
Homecoming not only celebrates your institution’s spirit but also brings current students, faculty, alumni, and members of the local community together to create lasting memories and strengthen the overall community feeling.
10 unique homecoming theme ideas to plan the perfect event
Looking for fresh homecoming theme ideas? These 10 picks will help you plan a fun, inclusive, and unforgettable alumni celebration.
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April 23, 2025
12 minutes
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