Strategic Alumni Engagement

Samples by Engagement Stage

Alumni Relations and Preceptions

Values and Expectations Matter

When alumni form their opinion about you, they consider their experiences, expectations, values and even perceptions. These “Attitudes” are different for different alumni populations.  Understand their attitudes to motivate and inspire!

Learn How This Works

Effective Communications

Engage Alumni in a Conversation

Gain the positive attention of alumni.  Ask, “What matters most to you?”  You’ve engaged them in a conversation about the university.  Inform and nurture them by sharing what you discover.  You’ll build trust while keeping the conversation going.

Learn How This Works

Philanthropic Strategies

Giving Priorities

You’ll discover giving priorities, philanthropic expectations, program priorities.  Involve major gift donors and prospects early in the Study to hear their concerns and get buy-in.  Visit them to share Study findings and assess philanthropic interests.

Effective Market Research

The Alumni Attitude Study

The Alumni Partnership Model

Inclusive

Inspirational

Achievable

Alumni Engagement

Four Steps to Sustainable and Organic Alumni Engagement and Giving

Listen

Ask What Matters Most

Connect

We Hear You

Share

Your Results – Your Plan

Ask

For Participation – Leadership – Giving

Ask Alumni What Matters Most to Them!

You’ll gain their attention and a trove of information.

We Make It Simple

The Study is a cooperative effort among university advancement professionals to measure and compare those alumni “attitudes” which most affect participation and giving.  Participate in the Study to compare your results with Study benchmarks to measure success and identify opportunities.

Select results from the Study include:

  • Importance/Performance Assessments on:
    • Programs and events
    • Editorial content by media source
    • Philanthropic opportunities
  • Ranking of Giving Values and Priorities
  • Loyalty/Affinity Index
  • Intent to participate financially Demographic detail on key alumni cohorts
Study for Engagement

Strategies for Advancement Leadership

Advancement Leadership

Alumni Attitude Study findings support advancement leadership from alumni relations to development, and from communication to advancement services.

Inclusive Process

The inclusive process represents a global aid in Advancement by connecting Advancement staff with alumni leaders and donors of today and tomorrow.  The process is inclusive but not overwhelming!

Advancement Leadership

Alumni Relations benefit from the Alumni Attitude Study data by significantly enhancing their ability to identify, establish and confirm alumni program and event priorities by cohort.

Effective Communications

Communications are created  which matches messaging to the values, preferences and experiences of key alumni cohorts based upon graduation era, donor status, ethnicity, college attended, geography and other data.

Host a Discussion

Build your culture of philanthropy by hosting a discussion about philanthropy with internal and external stakeholders.  Believing you are a part of something is critical to the culture of philanthropy.

Report Study findings to alumni and across campus
Alumni will know you listened to them and their trust will build

Over One Million Responses

ALUMNI ATTITUDE STUDY

Decades of Experience

  • Develop action plans based on credible findings using well-established analytics.
  • Use our exclusive list of past Study participants to choose a peer group to compare your results.
  • Use your comparable results to gain broad support your program priorities and giving opportunities.
  • Rely on our streamlined process and dedicated professionals to keep your staff time to a minimum.
  • Our Study is cost effective and can support applications at the system level to small colleges and schools.

1  20  360

After 20 years we know how to ask questions and provide

insight which is much more than providing data

Build Alumni Trust
Alumni Attitude Study Strategy

Understand Your Alumni

Most Read Communication

Typically is your most impactful communication.

Ask for an Opinion

Obtain alumni interest and positive opinion.

What We Heard You Say

Validates communication and creates trust.

Leverage Awareness

Transparency builds trust and understanding.

Create Engagement

Start a conversation to inform and nurture relationships.

Continue the Conversation

Build consensus and introduce an action plan or campaign.

YOUR ALUMNI STUDY IN ACTION

Effective Action Plans

With the Alumni Attitude Study you will:

  • Advance organizational leadership
  • Create effective action plans for alumni relations, programs and events
  • Generate a call for discovery with an attitude of stewardship
  • Prove and strengthen your university leadership position
Study for Engagement

Study as an Event

YOUR ALUMNI STUDY IS AN EVENT

Alumni Study Is an Event

Use the Study findings to:

  • Communicate with your alumni and create a campaign strategy
  • Develop the most effective method for your outreach
  • Evaluate and develop your approach based upon the most read communication
Study for Engagement

Sustainable Alumni Engagement

Engagement represents a long-term strategy. It is the common denominator which defines success as the active and ongoing participation of alumni who attend, give, promote, and refer.

“I just wanted to thank you again for the great presentation! You always make material that could be dry come to life. In our National Alumni Board committee meetings, many of the members kept quoting stats from the survey or mentioning something you said about the survey/stats. They obviously got a lot out of the presentation! You are a great team!”
– Kristi McLain Hoban, Associate Vice Chancellor

TCU UNIVERSITY ALUMNI RELATIONS

“In my former life as a corporate executive, I heard dozens and dozens of these kinds of attitude surveys. Too often, we got raw data – no helpful analysis on what we ought to learn from the data. You presented ‘actionable research.’ We’ll make good use of it.”
– Chip Visci, Associate Vice President, Strategic Communications

CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY

Advancement Leadership

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

Keep the Momentum Going

Understanding What Matters

We understand Alumni.  Alumni look at their collegiate experience as an investment that they hope will increase on value over time.  This plays an important role in our approach.

Survey Importance

Campus opinions about what matters to alumni are typically wide ranging.  Has anyone actually asked the alumni?  Are you basing your decisions on what the loudest alumnus/a is saying or on what most alumni believe?

Maintain the Progress

Opinions and relevance evolve over time.  We show you how to stay on top of changing topics of focus and continue to address those issues which matter most to your alumni.

ALUMNI ATTITUDE STUDY

Learn More

About Us

Building Trust

Alumni Persona

Our Services

Alumni Attitude Study Ask for Opinion

EXCITING PARTICIPATION

The Study Is
an Event

The Alumni Attitude Study represents an event for your alumni.  Through social media and direct engagement we present the study as an important event.  This approach enhances both engagement and excitement by creating a clear avenue of alumni participation in the direction the alma mater will take and the values that will be prioritized.

Strategic Partnerships
Alumni Attitude Study Ask for Opinion

IDEAS COME TRUE

The Study Is
Future Building

The Alumni Attitude Study helps  shape your organization’s future.  Within about three months you can better understand your alumni perceptions and beliefs.  It takes roughly one month to research and design your survey instrument, a month for distribution, reminders, posting on social media, and a month for analysis.

Data Driven Action