alumni office essentials- colleges

Alumni Relations Conference- India

Alumni Office EssentialsFor higher education institutions


1.What is the organizational structure of our

Alumni Office or Alumni Association?

2.What are the top 3 focus areas for your

office/association?

3.What are the 3 major challenges that the

Alumni office has been facing?

4.What are your measures of success for

the Alumni Office?


Why set up an alumni office?

• Provides direct link between alumni and their alma

mater

• Engage alumni with their alma mater and with each

other

• Promote alumni participation in development of the

institution

• Engage alumni for the development of the current

students

• Increase brand recall through showcasing alumni


Alumni

Development –

The Lifecycle


Inst

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Vis

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HR

(Stu

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Alumni Affairs Foundation


Vision & mission

What is the vision of the Alumni

Office at your institution?


Examples

Stanford Mission• The Stanford Alumni Association seeks to reach, serve and

engage all Stanford alumni and students; to foster a lifelong intellectual and emotional connection between the University and its graduates; and to provide the University with goodwill and support.

IIM Bangalore Mission• The IIMB Alumni Association aims to link the alumni to the

institution, develop synergistic plans to support the institution and achieve its vision, and to enable the institute to add value to all its stakeholders.

BITS Vision• Maximize the potential of BITS-ians and BITS Pilani


HR for Alumni Office

An ideal model of employing HR for the alumni office (with

limited resources) includes forming a faculty team to support

various projects of the office along with a student team for

running daily operations.

Part- time Full-timeStudent

volunteers


Benefits of having Student teams

• Experiential learning program

• Better connect with the Alumni network

• Better soft skills

• Taking responsibility at a early stage

• Leadership roles in the Alumni Office

• Decision making

• Job readiness


Calendar of

ActivitiesPlan & communicate

early to increase

engagement

Columbia University


University of Santa Clara


Budget

• Must cover the developmental and enhancement

related costs for the Alumni Office

• Is used to generate support in

• Building alumni sentiment

• Networking forums

• Advancement activities

• Special events (fundraising/fairs)

Always remember- A little investment over a period of

time can get exponential returns in a longer period.


Examples of investment

• HR

• Website/portal

• Infrastructure & its maintenance

• Post cards

• Learning forums

• Homecoming galas

• Alumni career fair

• Memorabilia of university• T-Shirts

• Mugs

• Pens

• Diaries


Pillars of Functional Alumni Office

Data Communication Engagement

Career services/ Placement

synergy

Lifelong connect with the alma-

mater


Alumni DataAlumni Data

Basis to reach out

Means to engage

Data Analytics

Value Creation


What to track?

Type of data that you should track:

Contact

InformationProfessional

InformationCollege

Information


Utilizing your Data

Set up monthly

meetings with faculty

for data utilization

Study trends of alumni

giving back through

data

Placement boost –Identify alumni across

industries

Bring alumni of common

interests together


Communication with Alumni

Why?

When?

How?


What to communicate

About Alma mater

Rankings

Achievements

Student achievements

New developments*

Events

About Alumni

Achievements of fellow alumni

Chapter events

Alumni success stories

About Alumni Office

Vision & Mission

Upcoming events

Reports

Career Services

Membership

Giving back


Planned

approach in

communication

can lead to

extensive

engagement


Alumni Offices in U.S. – part of Advancement

(Central)

VP Advancement

Head of AR

Program Officers

SevriceOfficers

Head of Development

Fundraisers

Characteristics:

• Central budget

• Central management

• Mission alignment

• Annual Fund

collaboration


Alumni Offices in U.S. - Independent

Organizations

Executive Director AR

Program OfficersMarketing/Comm

Officers

Alumni Services/Membershi

p

Sr. Director Operations

Characteristics:

• Membership

dues

• Marketing

• Budgeting

• Services Stressed

• Public vs. Private

alumni office essentials- colleges

Education

alumni officeis

alumni participation

alma materengage alumni

potential of bits

bits visionmaximize

period of time

longer period

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