Running Head: ALUMNI RELATIONS

Alumni Relations
Davonte Price
Siena Heights University
May 29, 2019
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An alumni relations program at a university is responsible for all activities and relations

of all alumni of a university. What this program does is it has a lot of developing and managing

engagement programs focused on increasing the depth and diversity of the relationships within a

university. The alumni relations program develops and implements alumni engagement strategies

along with other university programs such as, alumni outreach programs and fundraising

programs. I believe the purpose of an alumni association is to foster a spirit of loyalty and to

promote the general welfare of an organization. When being a part of an alumni, a person has to

have common relations. Some of these alumni relations metrics are; participation metrics, giving

data, volunteering, marketing communications, memberships and social media participation.

These metrics are what makes the universities alumni so important and crucial to have.

One of the best ways to retrieve data with alumni involvement is to keep track of the

participation metrics. This is just one of the things that should require data. When gathering data,

it shouldn’t be very often. It actually should be over a certain period of time such as, every five

to eight months. According to I Modules, it states that the results should be distributed as far

apart as possible, but as consistent as possible so that the progress can be seen. The data should

be able to be understood as clearly as possible and should be able to be understood visually, like

different kinds of graphs. The data should have a context to explain exactly what is being shown

and why it is particularly important. According to I Modules, the types of things that are included

in this data are; records of volunteer participations, event attendance, alumni marketing and

communication statistics, alumni membership data, fundraisers and analysis, and alumni travel

records. It is also important to keep track of the donations that are given, whether they are first

time donors or have been donating consistently overtime. At the end of this data, there should be

a summary of the data retrieved so it can be easier to understand as a whole. Using these two
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implementations in alumni relations in a university is important to have because it allows the

university to improve the acts of the engagement with their fellow alumni. It’s a way to be able

to see how the participation impacts other areas of the university and improves the

communication and performance in the alumni offices.

The other most important concept to keep track of is the involvement of social media

accounts and membership dues. One the easiest ways to stay in contact with fellow alumni

besides through email or direct mail is social media. According to Napa Group (2018), alumni

can engage with each other with or without the association. There is an “online manager” that

keeps track and monitors the communication content on social media profiles that relates to the

ages and general lifestyles of individuals. Another way to create engagement through social

media is through alumni engagement surveys. These surveys have the following information

collected; contact information, important campus associations, and preferred social media sites.

People spend most of their time on social media than they do checking their daily emails or

direct mail. This specific detail is important for the university to do because it is an easier way to

stay in contact with their fellow alumni and allows for more and better engagement for the future

and for soon to be alumni. On the other hand, there are memberships dues, which is a way for an

institution to offer alumni privileges in return for their annual payments to that institution.

According to Napa Group (2018), these memberships normally “equal five to ten years of annual

dues”. With this being the case Napa Group also says that, “it helps offset the loss of dues

revenue”. This is important to a university because the money that is earned is retrieved from

these memberships. That money goes towards investing support of career services, student

leadership programs, alumni networks, and special traditions.

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When it comes to being or becoming a volunteer in a college alumni association there has

to be enthusiasm and willingness of several individuals who are willing to take on the

organizational initiative and sustain it. Also, the most important part of alumni and friends of the

organization is to participate in the association’s activities. According to Alumni Relation it

states, “Defining the characteristics of a model alumnus is a great way to get new volunteers”.

This is important because the more volunteers that give, the happier they feel. I believe that by

volunteering for an old alumni school, it increases self-confidence. This contribution to the

overall success of the university by volunteering more you are doing good for others and at the

university. This provides a natural sense of accomplishment. The role as a volunteer can also

give a sense of pride and identity to that person as well. Another important metric is

communication. According to A. Paradise (2016), he stated that “colleges take advantage of

many communication methods to stay connected with alumni”. This is important because as

humans are drawn to one another and communicate with each other in a variety of capacities.

There are several roles that each individual fills on a daily basis depending on the context of an

interaction. What every interaction has in common is the need for clear and effective

communication. There are several elements that are involved in creating and maintaining lasting

and genuine relationships through communication, two of which are recognizing body language

and using effective listening skills. In correctly making use of these elements one can see an

improvement in the quality of social interactions as well as increased confidence in engaging

with others as the alumni association.

The concept of measuring alumni relations and engagement has many reasons to it. The

institutions will have the ability to chart progress, having necessary tools to guide in strategy, be

able to track individual alumni movement, be able to see the quantitative measure of impact and
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see the success of the alumni relations and the university itself. It is an overall concept to

improve the institution as a whole and proves to show that their work is not done after a student

graduates. It shows that the second most important years are the alumni years.
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References

Alumni Relations. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pepperdine.edu/alumni/content/strategic-

plan-v6.pdf

Measuring Alumni Engagement. (n.d.). IModules. Retrieved from

https://www.imodules.com/s/1333/18/ip1.aspx?sid=1333&gid=1&pgid=5812&cid=11777&ecid
=11777&ciid=51013&crid=0

Paradise, A. (2016, February). Benchmarking Alumni Relations in community Colleges.

Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED571307.pdf

Trends in Alumni Relations. (2018, January). Napa Group. Retrieved from

https://napagroup.com/2018/01/02/trends-in-alumni-relations/