One in five alumni engaged with you last year. Most of that was an email.
Six per cent came to something and one per cent volunteered, and those two are where all the room is. They are also the two that predict giving - a third of alumni who volunteer also give, against one in seven of the people you only email.
“It puts more intentionality behind what the event is trying to do, and the level of detail in the matches gives people a really good starting point. The insights are very comprehensive and a good value add.”
The two engagement modes with headroom left in them.
Communication is close to saturated and philanthropy is falling. Experiential and volunteer engagement are the two you can still move, and an event produces both.
Engagement you can count in the mode you are short of
Everyone who comes and everyone who offers to help another graduate is a countable engagement in the modes your return is thinnest on. The event was happening anyway, so the cost of producing that record is close to nothing.
A reason for the recent-graduate cohort to come
Reunions work for people who already know each other. Alumni from the last fifteen years mostly are not coming, and when asked what would bring them they say career conversations and being introduced to people. That is what this gives them.
Alumni who want to help, matched to someone who needs it
A lot of your alumni would volunteer if the ask were specific and small. Being told that two people are trying to do the thing you did, and why they would like twenty minutes, is a specific and small ask. It converts better than a general call for mentors.
Evidence for the annual report
You are asked to show that engagement is rising in a way that is not just email opens. This produces a record of who came, what they were looking for and who they helped, which is the sort of thing that stands up in a CASE return.
Runs on the event you were already putting on.
Two questions when they register
What they are working on, and what they would be happy to help another graduate with. It sits on your existing event registration.
Three names before the event
Everyone arrives knowing who to find and why. The graduate who came to talk to somebody in their sector talks to somebody in their sector.
What came out of the room
Who met whom, what your alumni said they wanted, and which groups inside your alumni body are large enough to build something around.
What your alumni told you, without another survey.
Alumni surveys are long, infrequent and answered by the people who were already engaged. This comes from everyone who registered, and it arrives within a couple of days.
- What they are actually working on. Sector, stage and the thing they are trying to solve, from everyone who came.
- What they would give. Who offered mentoring, introductions, work experience or their time, and to whom. This is a volunteer pipeline that has already qualified itself.
- The cohorts worth building for. The sector or career-stage groups big enough to justify their own network, event or programme.
Priced per event, by the number attending.
Alumni events are separate things with separate budgets, so it is priced per event by headcount, and it is free for small ones. If you run a full calendar the annual package covers all of them.
What advancement teams ask first.
Start with one event.
Tell us what you are running next and we will show you what your graduates would get, and what you would have to report afterwards.
Give your alumni a reason to turn up, not just open the email.
Run it at one event and see what your graduates say they want. It would be great to show you a report first.
Talk to us