Your relationships with alumni are inherently special. They’ve seen and benefited from your institution’s work firsthand.
Andrea Kihlstedt
Published:
April 6, 2023
Updated:
April 6, 2023
Let’s say your higher-ed institution is conducting or planning a capital campaign. This exciting project will transform your institution’s ability to grow, serve students, and pursue its mission. For many schools, a campaign will be designed to accomplish a mix of different objectives, like new building projects, equipment investments, or growing endowment and scholarship funds.
Whatever the purpose of your campaign, you’ll rely on contributions from many people to get you there.
One key group that you must connect with during your campaign is your alumni. After all, your relationships with alumni are inherently special. They’ve seen and benefited from your institution’s work firsthand. They’ve had personal experiences worth sharing with future generations of students and researchers. Many are likely in positions to contribute meaningfully to your campaign and help your institution grow to the next level.
Let’s walk through four tips for engaging alumni and motivating them to give during a capital campaign.
Your case for support is one of the most important tools for your entire capital campaign. It explains the campaign’s purpose, the positive impact it will have, and the amount of money that you’re seeking to raise. Your case tells the story and lays out the argument for why your campaign is important and worth supporting.
The most effective cases for support answer these key questions:
Answering these questions will help you articulate your vision in a clear, compelling way that resonates with alumni. This shared vision is essential for engaging them in the campaign, and drafting the case for support will get you started.
From there, you can compile a more complete communication plan and distill your message into the various documents that you’ll need during the campaign. These include campaign brochures, pledge forms, letterheads, various graphic assets, web page wireframes, slide decks, emails, and much more.
You’ll also need materials for one-on-one discussions with potential alumni donors during the earlier phases of the campaign. Donor discussion guides should be fully rooted in your case for support but simplified and customized to reinforce your unique relationships with each prospect—another best practice to keep in mind during your campaign.
All of your communications with alumni during the campaign will need to be anchored in their unique relationship with your institution.
As part of your communication plan, create messaging guidelines to use when talking with alumni. This guide should describe the emotional connections you’re seeking to tap into and outline the specific language that will help you do it. Brainstorm a list of unique traditions, landmarks, and other things that set your school apart so that you can feature them in your messages.
Heading into the campaign’s quiet phase, you’ll develop a list of lead prospects by examining their giving capacity, affinity, and connections to your school. But go further than traditional prospecting markers to pull information like:
Use this information to shape your outreach to these prospects—the added customization will help reinforce the relationship and remind them of the role your institution has played in their lives. This is most immediately helpful in your conversations with prospects, but get creative to find ways to further customize the printed/digital materials you create for them, too. For example, pull photos of campus from their time in school and position them alongside renderings of your proposed project.
Your school has fostered a community of alumni over the years—infuse your campaign with that sense of community by encouraging alumni to interact with each other.
Organizations of all sizes rely on peer-to-peer engagement techniques for two key reasons: they can lessen your team’s workload, and they provide powerful social proof. When we see loved ones and respected colleagues publicly supporting a cause or project, we’re naturally inclined to give it our attention. For your campaign, this added visibility can help you drive more engagement and reach new donors.
The exact tactics you might use will take different forms at different stages of the campaign. For example, you may ask alumni to:
Get creative to identify ways your alumni can help put you in touch with new prospects throughout the duration of the campaign. The nature of this peer-to-peer engagement will shift as your audience broadens out toward the end of the campaign, but the underlying concept is simply to tap into the connections that are already there.
Capital campaigns open up plenty of opportunities for recognizing donors. For many donors, leaving a lasting legacy at your institution could be an important motivator to engage with and contribute to the campaign.
Having a recognition strategy in place allows you to discuss it ahead of time rather than scrambling to come up with one after the fact. A clear, approved recognition plan will give you a helpful roadmap to engage legacy-minded donors. Recognition tactics can take many forms, including:
The exact options you offer a donor should align with the scale of their gift. Creating a tiered system of standardized recognition opportunities like public shoutouts, followed by engraved bricks, then increasingly prominent positions on a recognition wall, and so on is a tried-and-true strategy for many institutions. If this approach to recognition works for your campaign, sketch out its details in advance so that you can use it to engage prospects.
Working with your lead donors on a recognition plan tailored to their interests and desires can show them your school cares about their experience and further deepen the relationship.
Attitudes toward naming opportunities are shifting as institutions are more aware of the need to be equitable and inclusive. So rather than just doing what your organization has done before, take some time to discuss the plan for donor recognition internally to make sure it is in keeping with your organization's values.
We recommend first determining what your institution wants to do or is comfortable doing to recognize lead donors. Develop a plan that is approved by your campaign committee or even your organization’s board. Then use that plan when talking with your donor during fundraising conversations. While you will want to develop a somewhat flexible recognition approach for each lead donor, the plan must stay within the parameters of the approved recognition plan.
From developing your case to support in the planning stage, to discussing donor recognition opportunities in the quiet phase, to encouraging peer-to-peer interactions in the public phase, there are all kinds of ways to use your school’s capital campaign to engage alumni. Adapt these tips to your unique needs, study up on best practices for planning a capital campaign, and you’ll be off to a strong start.
Table of Contents
Subscribe
See how modern advancement teams bring alumni engagement and fundraising together.
Last year was disappointing for many, especially milestone classes longing for reunion programs and special events to commemorate their grad year. However, many institutions mitigated the situation by pivoting to virtual events so their members could connect from wherever they were. Going forward, many institutions plan on focusing on virtual and hybrid events instead of going completely in-person, given the flexibility they offer — alumni can choose to attend in person or hop on a call no matter where they are.
If you are looking for ways to engage your alumni in 2024, consider the following virtual and hybrid event ideas, we have got your back. Let’s dive in and discuss some virtual and hybrid alumni engagement events you can plan for your alumni.
Organize a speaking event involving a public figure or influencer who is an alumnus. This event can be entirely virtual or hybrid to create a homecoming experience for those interested in attending in person. When choosing the event speaker, consider an individual with a strong personality who can pull the targeted crowd of alumni and use their platform to publicize the event. Your team may need to book your famous figure early. It’s best practice to reach out to the potential speaker about six months in advance to lock down a date with them.
Consider compiling a list of upto three key people and contacting those of top priority first. Once you’ve secured a speaker, other event logistics such as securing a virtual event platform or mobile event app can follow. Consider also allowing the speaking event to be an opportunity for networking and fundraising.
Bring the expertise of industry-leading professionals to alumni in a virtual setting. These webinars are ongoing alumni engagement events that are geared toward the professional development of members. They could be monthly or bi-monthly, but they must cover a variety of topics that delight attendees. The content related to alumni’s career and personal well-being can be delivered as live webinars, pre-recorded streaming, or uploaded as on-demand content.
To have interactive webinars, use a virtual event platform to host these webinars so that attendees can connect and contribute with their profiles and continue to engage with one another on the platform after the events.
A homecoming or reunion weekend is an opportunity for alumni to connect with faculty, students, and staff. This annual event usually features a variety of programs such as:
When organizing a homecoming alumni event, focus on content strategies that will provide meaningful engagement opportunities for all attendees. Make event sessions, offers, and experiences contextual to create personalized experiences for attendees.
Homecoming and reunion events are the best fit for hybrid experiences. Therefore, you should put considerable effort into engaging online attendees in every aspect of the event. It is critical to choose a versatile event platform and app that can provide the required engagement level.
Create a fun experience for your alumni to connect, network, learn and give by organizing a virtual or hybrid alumni variety night. As the name implies, you can be creative to include anything that offers fun engagement and fosters interactions among members. Consider the suggestions below:
You can also make the variety night a fundraising gala with silent auctions that target wealthy alumni groups. The auction items should be distinctive and enticing to encourage bidders. You can make them more special by getting famous alumni like renowned scientists, celebrities, and athletes to sign the items that are up for bidding.
The auction can also involve naming rights to a building or facility within your institution’s campus so alumni can secure their legacy at the school.
Another way to engage your alumni is by organizing game activities as stand-alone events. You can do this virtually and include some fundraising elements in the games as well. We suggest the games below for the best event possible:
Picture Zoom
Present alumni with zoomed-in images of popular places on campus and ask them to guess what the full image is. To organize this game, gather some pictures and create a quiz slide with the zoomed image included. Then have players guess where the photo was taken. Set a time limit and award points based on speed and accuracy of answers. After the quiz is taken, show the whole image in the quiz leaderboard slide and display the top winners.
Scavenger Hunts
A virtual scavenger hunt consists of individuals or group hunters racing to find items or solve challenges. The event host creates challenges that members can complete within their homes. For example, the host can ask members to hunt for a list of items that connect them with their alma mater and set a time limit to find them. The host approves the items that are submitted and determines the winners.
Alumni can play the game in groups based on alumni classes and each group can assign tasks to the other groups in succession to make the game more fun.
Mini Balderdash
This game is about putting up an uncommon word from the English language and asking your members to guess the meaning. You will likely get different, fun guesses.
Melody Match
Select a collection of tunes that your alumni can relate with and play each for about 10 to 20 seconds. Ask members to identify the song and the artist to win.
Most likely to...
This game is suitable for smaller rooms with a class of alumni who know their fellow mates well. Name some “most likely to” scenarios and ask participants to vote on who's most likely to do or get involved in a particular thing, whether good or bad.
There are other games and fun activities like virtual jeopardy, virtual yoga, and endurance exercises that you can plan for your alumni. During game activities, encourage members to put their webcam on to make things more exciting and interactive. With an effective virtual event platform and mobile event app, you can host all kinds of alumni engagement events within a calendar year. It will make planning future events easier because you’ll now be able to measure your ROI and engagement success as you begin hosting events.
.webp)
5 Virtual & Hybrid Alumni Engagement Events For 2026
Looking for ways to level up your alumni engagement program for 2026? Consider the following virtual and hybrid event ideas to connect and delight your members.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
We’re already deep into the first quarter of 2024, and this year promises to be nothing short of exciting for Alumni Relations and Advancement. From transitioning towards a hybrid event model to placing emphasis on alumni and their needs, educational institutions across the country have slowly started rethinking events, and the way they engage with their alumni.
We’ve seen so many outstanding engagement ideas ever since the pandemic began in 2020, and so many teams have implemented out-of-the-box events that successfully engaged with alumni around the world. That’s when we realized we should compile some of these ideas that your alumni will LOVE.
Here are 12 alumni-centric engagement ideas for higher educational institutions that will inspire you in 2024.
Marietta College is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio. They managed to raise over $190,000 for their Giving Day in 2020, from over 1,200 donors!
They achieved this magnificent feat through their #Luv4MC campaign on social media. The hashtag encouraged the College’s alumni community to come forward and show their support by sharing their most cherished stories and pictures of their alma mater.
We were inspired by the efforts of Kathryn Gloor (Senior Director of Annual Giving at Marietta College) and their amazing team, for rallying so much support to make their Giving Day immensely successful.
Willamette University is a private university in Salem, Oregon. The University’s Advancement team managed to successfully engage with their alumni through a virtual content repository, called the WU Stream Initiative.
The initiative was based on the idea of providing an array of content to every alumni member in their community to choose from. This included virtual lectures, videos, podcasts, and an archive of content that serves the likes of every alum, no matter where they are and what they prefer.
A huge shoutout to Tyler Reich and their team for implementing such an incredible alumni-centric idea to engage with the University’s community.
Wesleyan College is a private, liberal arts women's college in Macon, Georgia. The College managed to keep their alumnae engaged and entertained through their unique “Lunch & Learn” series.
The College’s Office of Alumnae Affairs wanted to do something memorable to engage with their constituents during the pandemic. The series features one-hour Zoom sessions where the President or Provost and a faculty or staff member engage in meaningful discussions about relevant topics like diversity and inclusion on campus, and athletics during the new normal.
We love how Cathy Coxey Snow (Director of Alumnae Affairs at Wesleyan College since 1993) and their team have been creating meaningful engagement opportunities for the College’s alumnae during the pandemic.
Madonna University is a private Catholic university in Livonia, Michigan. Ahead of the University’s St. Felix Day of Giving, the Alumni Office created a touching communication plan to encourage participation and raise more funds.
The pandemic forced the Office to rethink their strategies for the campaign, and they decided to keep the messaging behind the appeal simple and from the heart. By focusing on the immediate needs of current students, and the impact each gift would make on their education. The heartfelt communication clearly left a mark on the University’s alumni, as the campaign was a huge success.
A huge shoutout to Katie Dougherty and their team for putting together such an inspiring campaign in such a short timeframe.
The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts and sciences college in Olympia, Washington. Their Return To Evergreen event featured an array of events that helped engage with their alumni, while also creating discussions and raising awareness on important societal issues.
The campaign included a few breakout sessions like Art in a Time of Resistance and Change, which served as a beacon to bring racial, cultural, and social justice to the forefront. Topics like wealth disparity, immigration, racism, climate change, and gun violence were a vital part of the conversations.
We love how Correan Barker (Associate Director of Events, Alumni & Donor Relations) and their team put together an event that managed to keep the College’s alumni engaged.
University of the Ozarks is a private university in Clarksville, Arkansas. Their Virtual Homecoming 2020 merged three distinct events – alumni weekend, family weekend, and homecoming, into one iconic week of virtual events.
The University’s Virtual Homecoming contained a plethora of fun-filled activities for alumni around the world to partake in, such as Virtual Campus Tours, Spirits Wars Launch, Virtual Bingo, and Ozarks Reunion. The new format enabled the University to engage with its large international alumni community, thereby making the event more accessible. Winners of certain events were also awarded with Ozarks gears and merchandise.
Putting together one virtual event can be a lot of work, so imagine putting together an entire week of virtual events for alumni! A huge shoutout to Justin McCormick (Associate Director of Alumni Relations) and their team for pulling it off.
Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. Amidst the pandemic, the Alumni Relations Staff wanted to engage with alumni meaningfully, which was how the idea for “Virtual Whitman” was born.
Essentially, “Virtual Whitman” is an online resource repository built with the intent of staying connected with each other during the pandemic. This initiative enabled the College’s alumni to have easy access to relevant resources such as recordings of past virtual events, historical archives about the college and the city, and kid-friendly science experiments for alumni to try out at home.
We love how Jennifer Dilworth Northam (Director Of Alumni Relations) and their team put together such an amazing initiative.
Wartburg College is a private Lutheran liberal arts college in Waverly, Iowa. The College’s Alumni and Parent Programs Office turned to their alumni to raise funds for various ongoing infrastructural projects, which turned out to be a huge success.
Wartburg College’s “Fund the Fortress” campaign was essentially an affinity-based campaign to raise funds for projects that alumni cared for. Some of the projects involved raising funds for exercise science equipment, and for a living classroom in honor of a late faculty member. The campaign turned out to be very successful, owing to how targeted and specific the asks were.
A huge shoutout to Robert Ruchotzke (Director Of Annual Giving) and their amazing team for putting together such an awe-inspiring fundraising campaign.
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business is a business school operated by the University of Michigan. Their unique “Alumni in Residence” mentorship program focused on engaging with their alumni, while also creating value and opportunities for current students.
The “Alumni in Residence” program focuses on the concept of 1-1 flash mentorships, where each session lasts for about 30 minutes. While current students have wonderful opportunities to learn from their seniors, alumni also get to showcase their achievements in their respective fields and share their talents with the next generation.
Kudos to Caitlyn Johnson (Director of Alumni Engagement) and their incredible team for putting together a program that both current and former students of the School get to benefit from.
The University of Georgia is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. The University’s Bulldog 100 celebrates top businesses operated or owned by the University’s alumni.
Every year, the Bulldog 100 ranks the top 100 businesses, based on CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) over the last three years. The list comprises businesses from over two dozen industries, including non-profits, healthcare, and software. The Alumni Association usually hosts a grand celebration for the Bulldog 100, where they count down the businesses that made the cut, until finally revealing the overall winner.
We love how Meredith Johnson (Executive Director of Alumni Relations) and their team are engaging with alumni by shining the spotlight on amazing business ventures.
California State University, Chico, commonly, Chico State, is a public university in Chico, California. Their “Wildcat Connect Webinar Series” was immensely successful in engaging with their large alumni community across the world.
Essentially a simple idea, the “Wildcat Connect Webinar Series” consists of a series of informative webinars that would benefit the University’s alumni. Topics for these webinars ranged from entrepreneurship and startups to career advice, to tips on financial planning. The series was a huge success, as over 1,200 alumni poured their appreciation and support. The initiative also won the coveted CASE Platinum Award in 2021, in the Best Practices in Alumni Relations category.
A huge shoutout to Tania Miranda Rueda and their incredible team for putting together an award-winning campaign to engage with so many alumni across the world.
Pittsburg State University is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas. Their “Great Gorilla Tour” enabled the University to (quite literally) meet their alumni where they were, through an elaborately planned road trip across the country.
The most recent “Great Gorilla Tour: West Coast Edition” featured the advancement team in an amazing road trip where they met with alumni in different cities along the way. The trip lasted for over two weeks, and the team toured across nine cities in nine different states, not to mention the hundreds of alumni they got to engage with along the way.
We love how Danielle Driskill (Assistant Director of Alumni & Constituent Relations), Jon Bartlow (Director of Alumni & Constituent Relations) and the rest of their team put together this incredible road trip.
That wraps up our list of ideas to inspire you this year. Hopefully, you enjoyed these ideas just as much as we did. We can’t wait to see what this year has in store for us!
12 Higher-Ed Alumni-Centric Engagement Ideas To Inspire You in 2026
Here are 12 amazing higher-ed engagement ideas that will improve alumni engagement and inspire your engagement strategy in 2024.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
Read Blackbaud's official statement here.
Ten months into an eventful 2022, we’ve got some big news to share. Blackbaud, the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, and Almabase, the world’s most loved digital-first alumni engagement solution, are here to officially announce an expanded partnership. This will provide a modern solution for advancement teams to unlock higher alumni engagement and better fundraising.
| “Our vision at Blackbaud is to put our customers’ needs first and provide innovative solutions for the market by creating the best outcomes across digital engagement, Advancement CRM, and financials. Our partnership with Almabase is an integral part of that vision.”
Chris Krackeler, President and GM of Higher Education at Blackbaud
| “Our mission at Almabase is to make education affordable by helping every institution increase alumni participation. The education fundraising landscape is evolving rapidly, and the best institutions are proactive in engaging their alumni, using data to drive decisions, and meeting alumni where they are. Our expanded partnership with Blackbaud and strong integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT will be a game changer for any institution that wants to create a constant pipeline of donors and drive more donations.”
Kalyan Varma, Co-Founder and CEO of Almabase
Even before the expanded partnership, both brands have closely worked with each other over the last few years, trying to perfect their industry-leading integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT (more details below).
Here’s why the partnership’s timing is opportune – in the last two decades, alumni donor participation has halved, and the reason is hardly surprising. In a digital-first world, your alumni want more from the relationship with their alma mater – more tailored programs, and engagement that puts value at the front.
Almabase and Blackbaud’s Expanded Partnership, powered by a digital-first solution and a connected Advancement CRM, aims to reverse this downward trend. The partnership puts you in the driver’s seat, letting you take control of your data, craft personalized alumni experiences at scale, and unify your advancement team’s efforts.
In a nutshell, we believe that a digital-first engagement platform, coupled with a strong fundraising CRM for higher-ed, is the game-winning combination you need to drive value-led alumni engagement and fundraising.
Blackbaud has a suite of digital tools that are popularly used by advancement teams across the country. Several of Almabase’s partner institutions today use Raiser’s Edge NXT as their Advancement CRM. Both our teams have been hard at work, creating seamless integrations that enable advancement services professionals to move constituent, gift, and event data between systems, without friction. With the expanded partnership, the capabilities of these integrations are only going to grow more powerful.
Almabase’s integration with RE NXT has already received an exciting (and heavily requested) feature that we can’t wait to talk about. Almabase and RE NXT can now sync bi-directionally, meaning constituent data can move both ways (i.e., from Almabase to RE NXT, and vice versa). This is applicable to basic data fields like constituent name and DOB, and also other properties like education/employment information, and even a few custom fields.
We don’t want to bore you with the technical details of how this works (here’s a detailed article if you’re really interested), but all we’d like to say is that this a first-of-its-kind for the industry.
Almabase and Blackbaud continue to work towards a larger objective – unifying advancement teams with modern digital tools that unlock higher alumni engagement and better fundraising.
Having inked this partnership, we’re making a bold prediction – the industry is stepping into a new age of alumni relations and fundraising. One where your alumni will be at the heart of your programming. Advancement teams need to take a value-driven, engagement-first approach if they want to build stronger relationships.
Almabase & Blackbaud Announce Expanded Partnership to Redefine Digital Engagement & Fundraising for Higher Ed
Blackbaud, the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, and Almabase, the world’s most loved digital-first alumni engagement solution, officially announce an expanded partnership.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
.svg)
.webp)
.webp)
%20(1).webp)