Alumni Relations

How The Ohio State University Engages and Gathers Insight from 550,000 Alumni

How The Ohio State University Engages and Gathers Insight from 550,000 Alumni

Few institutions have as many alumni as The Ohio State University, with its 550,000 Buckeyes worldwide. But we all face similar challenges when it comes to keeping our alumni engaged at scale from afar.

Ohio State launched an online community called the Buckeye Room to solve those problems. They use the Buckeye Room to gather information on their alumni, solicit feedback, and keep them engaged.

We asked Molly Schmied, Director of Market Research & Insights in the Office of Advancement, to share more about the project and what other institutions can learn from it.

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How Union College's Garnet Society Revolutionized the Student Alumni Association Model

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How Union College's Garnet Society Revolutionized the Student Alumni Association Model

Student alumni associations are nothing new. Their mission: To bridge the gap between students and alumni and to prevent the engagement drop off that occurs when students transition into alumnihood.

But not every student alumni association accomplishes those goals. Those that do, and do it well, are notable. That's why Union College's Garnet Society should be a model for anyone running or thinking about starting a student alumni association.

We asked Union's Associate Director of Alumni & Parent Engagement, Damond Heath, to explain The Garnet Society's success and how its unique system of governance is at its root.

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Why Davidson is Publishing a Print Alumni Directory for the First Time in Over a Decade

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Why Davidson is Publishing a Print Alumni Directory for the First Time in Over a Decade

Printed alumni directories are largely a thing of the past.

But for one school that gets requests from alumni for printed directories every week, resurrecting the practice became an appealing way to satisfy their constituents and update their contact information at the same time.

Davidson College's Director of Alumni Relations Marya Howell explained why her office decided to take on the project.

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Alumni Mentoring Programs: A Literature Review in 6 Articles

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Alumni mentoring was the big buzzphrase in alumni relations and career services in 2016.

But the rise in such programs has some people asking, "What is mentoring anyway?" Is it a Karate Kid-style, one-on-one relationship that the institution has to set up from scratch? Or is it something more organic? What can mentees expect to get out of it, and what should mentors expect to do?

To help answer these and other questions, we picked six articles that cut past the hype and clarify what alumni mentoring programs look like at their best.

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How Santa Clara University Hit Their Annual Alumni Engagement Goal in Just 6 Months

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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.

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