Santa Clara University’s Alumni Association set an ambitious alumni engagement goal for their new Switchboard. They wanted to sign 1,000 people up for the platform within a year—a high bar for any new program.
When they reached that goal in just six months, we knew we had to share how they did it.
Their blueprint can be used by any office that is serious about reaching their goals.
Let's face it—sometimes managing volunteers can feel like more work than the volunteers are helping your office can get done.
It's important to have a strategy for integrating them into your work, whether you work in alumni relations, advancement, or elsewhere.
Loreal Maguire is Director of Volunteer Programs and Laura DenBow is Senior Director of Volunteer Programs in Cornell's office of alumni affairs. We asked them to share how Cornell integrates alumni into their advancement strategy.
There's a steady email arms race going on between retailers, nonprofits, and everyone else eager for a moment of your attention.
Too often, commercial enterprises edge nonprofits and higher ed institutions out of the inbox with innovative copy and design.
Here are five email tactics you can use to keep up in 2017—if you aren't using them already.
Colleges and universities are turning to "career communities"—organized, clustered networks of alumni spread across different industries and fields—to serve their students' career needs at scales larger than ever before.
Colorado State University's Career Communities program is one shining example of the success of such a strategy. CSU's 15 career communities helps its 33,000+ students (and even more young alumni) find their way into the careers of their choosing.
Barb Richardson is Associate Director of Assessment & Strategic Initiatives at CSU's Career Center. We asked her to tell us how CSU has implemented its Career Communities program and made it a success.
Why do students go to college? Most academics would be horrified to discover that it’s not to get a great education and become educated citizens of the world.
Today’s students still want high quality academics, but they take the educational benefits of college for granted. What students really expect from today’s college, as reported in the Higher Education Research Institute’s survey of incoming freshmen, is to get a leg up. Three of the top four reasons for coming to college (and the percentage of students who cited that reason) are related to careers.
Podcasts are an excellent way to keep alumni engaged and advertise your institution to a broader audience. They hold listeners' attention, increase their affinity for your school, and make your institution useful to them. (See our blog post on what schools can learn from public radio for more on this.)
Here are 5 schools that successfully use podcasts to keep their communities engaged.