"Early and often" is an apt motto when it comes to engaging students with alumni affairs, but putting that sentiment into practice is easier said than done.
Oakland University pulled it off.
Oakland's "Leadership OU" program fosters professional growth among students while highlighting the accomplishments of alumni through a mentoring program and a speaker series. The program won a Pride of CASE District V award for best student-alumni programming in 2015.
Many advancement offices give up on soliciting alumni who have been unengaged for decades, but not Chelsea Knowles. Knowles is Regional Director of Development for the Western US at University of Michigan's College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts.
We asked Knowles to give us a preview of her CASE DV/VI Conference session, "The Lost Generations: The Essential Steps to Connecting Alumni Back to Your Organization."
Social media is a vital part of any modern fundraising campaign—both for a campaign's launch and keeping it going.
For large universities, coordinating social media strategy across campuses, schools, and departments can be incredibly hard. It's Marisa Larson's job to do that as Development Communications Coordinator at the Kansas State University Foundation.
We're thrilled to share news of our partnership with Santa Clara University. Hundreds of alumni and students have already signed up for the Santa Clara University Switchboard.
Michelle Cwirko-Godycki '03 is Associate Director of Marketing and Communications in the Office of Alumni Relations. Megan Bradley is Assistant Director of Social Media and Career Networking in the Office of Alumni Relations.
We asked them to share why they're excited about working with Switchboard.
We all know intuitively that young alumni are different than their older counterparts, but we often lack the data to explain how—or to explain what we can do about it.
Now we have some data to help.
The Alumni Attitude Study surveyed over 500,000 alumni at 200 universities and colleges between 2001–2012. The survey asked alumni of all ages questions about their giving habits and relationships with their alma maters. The data explain why young alumni giving patterns are different than those of their older peers.