Alumni Relations

How SMU Increased Its Alumni Volunteer Base by 500%

Managing volunteers can be time-consuming, but anyone who runs a successful volunteer program will tell you that the time spent is well worth it. A committed network of volunteers is an invaluable resource for any institution.

Southern Methodist University uses the metaphor of "barn raising" to define its volunteer strategy, and it recruits its volunteers with the promise of what they can accomplish together. SMU has used this strategy to increase its volunteer base by 500% since 2009.

The barn raising metaphor resonated with us so much that we had to talk to SMU about it. We caught up with SMU's Director of Annual and Alumni Giving Astria Smith after her CASE District IV conference presentation, "Barn Raising: What the Amish teach us about volunteer management."

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How Noble and Greenough School Uses Its Smallness to Its Advantage

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Anyone even tangentially involved in fundraising is familiar with this equation:

Donations = Total Population × Giving Rate

Lower giving rates and smaller populations beget smaller yields.

Small schools, be they colleges or independent schools, have to face the challenge of having a small total population every year. They learn to make the most out of what they have and develop strategies that prioritize depth over breadth.

Noble and Greenough School, familiarly known as Nobles, is one of those institutions. They've created a culture of philanthropy that allows them to be aggressive about asking for support, and they've devoted resources to nurturing individual relationships with their alumni. Their Graduate Affairs Office has also made alumni career services and networking a priority. By building a network on top of an already tightly knit community, Nobles is making its smallness work to its advantage.

We interviewed Greg Croak, Nobles' Director of Graduate Affairs, about Nobles' success.

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There’s No Such Thing as Platform Fatigue—There Are Only Bad Platforms

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When college and university offices consider launching a new platform or app for their communities, they’re often torn between the need to provide a service that their constituents want and the fear of paying for one more thing that nobody uses.

Too many offices have worked hard to launch a new website, service, or app for their students and alumni only to see nobody use it. We chalk it up to “platform fatigue,” the weariness we all feel when we have to sign up for another website with another account and remember another password. Members of our community, we think, already use so many platforms, websites, and apps that they don’t have room for one more. That’s why ours failed.

But I’m here to explain why platform fatigue is a myth and why platforms really fail: There’s no such thing as platform fatigue—there are only bad platforms.

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Why Nova Southeastern University Integrated Its Annual Fund and Alumni Relations

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It's not unusual for Alumni Relations and Annual Fund offices to work together, but not many are fully integrated. Nova Southeastern University is one of those exceptions.

We asked Jason Lyons, Associate Director of the Annual Fund, and Rachel M. Mojica, Associate Director of Alumni Relations, to tell us about their CASE District 3 presentation, "Excite, Engage, Evaluate! Alumni Relations and Annual Fund Collaboration." They explained why Nova decided to integrate its Annual Fund and Alumni Relations offices and how that change is paying off.

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How Fresno State Launched Its Award-Winning Effort to Engage LGBTQ Alumni & Allies

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The trick to engaging all our alumni is realizing that we probably can't—at least not all at once. We have to develop tailored approaches for different alumni populations in order to find the messages and offerings that matter to them most.

Fresno State won a CASE District VII award this year for doing just that with its Rainbow Alumni and Allies Club. Through the RAAC, Fresno maintains  relationships with its alumni, connects alumni with students on campus, and does social good all at the same time. 

We reached out to Fresno State's Director of Development Peter Robertson to find out more about the program.

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How George Mason's CASE Award-Winning Golden Quill Society Engages Young Alumni

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George Mason University has what every school wants: young alumni who want to remain engaged.

But until 2011, GMU young alumni felt there was no easy way for them to give back to their community after graduation. That was the year George Mason created the Golden Quill Society, a young alumni leadership group that went on to win a CASE Circle of Excellence award in 2014.

Since then, the Golden Quill Society has created a pipeline for alumni leadership, volunteering, and giving, and helped the GMU Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations better understand the wants and needs of its young alumni community.

We asked George Mason's Associate Director of Alumni Relations, Adrienne Teague, to recap the presentation on the Golden Quill Society that she made at the CASE District 3 Conference in Nashville.

"It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are." —Wendell Berry