The 2020 challenge of every alumni officer: Engaging alumni of color

Wouldn’t you agree that within these past few months, our plates filled too quick, too much? From hoping to keep our jobs, performing in the roles as efficiently as possible from home, our job to learning to acknowledge our roles in the systemic injustices, and inequities around us. You name it, and chances are we have it on our plate already. And when it comes to diversity and inclusion, while the general tone is positive with “yes, let’s unpack these issues”, it comes with the conscious responsibility of detailing specifics thoughtfully and in a non-tokenizing manner. In this article, I want to dig into the above idea with a focus on alumni offices. A common observation from all the alumni offices I have worked with has a consistent theme in the past few months - their team meeting agendas include the question How do I engage alumni of color?

Here are five ways to keep on the radar when brainstorming on that question with your Alumni Relations office.

#1. Talk to your data (and that includes both speaking and listening)

Whether it is decisions around day-to-day operations or planning for an upcoming campaign with your fundraising team, quality data can support all such needs. So, make sure you have a good relationship with your data in two ways:

• Collect data: Most institutions do not have consistent and clean data when it comes to demographics. Some possible reasons could be:

a). The student admissions office does not have processes to collect this information, so this data does not flow even as alumni.

b). Alumni can have various interaction sources with their school, including meetup groups and different affinity groups via past alumni. While such groups offer your alumni a space to stay connected in various degrees, they add inconsistencies in how data is collected.

c). Lack of good email addresses of alumni leads to challenges in collecting data via surveys.

Create a consistent data collection survey that collects this demographic and alternative contact information, maybe via an automatic prompt when students apply for graduation, indicating they are in the final quarter/semester.

• Analyze data: Over time, as you start collecting quality data, periodically pull reports to understand some key trends like (but not limited to):

a). demography of your alumni

b). the subtle differences between alumni who are first-generation immigrants vs. those who come from a family of first-generation immigrants

c). motivations for the feeling of belonging by generation and ethnicities

#2. Leverage strength-based philosophy

Marry a strengths-based philosophy with your alumni programs such that it actively matches high-potential people from underrepresented groups with your leadership team to address a real issue at school. Not only will this give the high-potential alumni access to decision-makers, but the leadership team also will receive input from the alumni of diverse backgrounds.

#3. Setup team training

For all your internal team, setup training that enables them for thoughtful engagement with alumni of diverse communities. Three quick ways to approach this could be:

• Invite external support for training around diversity and inclusion.
• Create a forum wherein willing alumni from underrepresented communities can answer questions and share cultural nuances that enable your team to overcome unknown biases. This step provides a learning opportunity and initiates a dialogue for any meaningful and deliberate collaborations.
• Create space for “watch and talk” opportunities to go over pre-recorded/live webinars relevant to this topic together and follow with a discussion.

#4. Develop creative engagement opportunities

Utilize ideas like

• developing a monthly e-newsletter addressing stories and issues affecting alumni of color.
• providing networking opportunities through programming that invites alumni of color to connect in an environment conducive to discussing their specific concerns or past experiences they felt excluded.
• incorporating a measurable outcome in your programmatic elements to consciously broaden the definition of “success” in your programs.
• encouraging alumni of color to explore and consider chapter-leadership roles within alumni chapters.
• partnering with other geographically local schools to create a shared space for bringing alumni of color together (to enable them to share their experiences) and for bringing leadership together (to establish more vital brain trust and partnership on these critical issues).

#5. Embrace vulnerability

We don’t want to be wrong, but more than that, we certainly don’t want to look wrong. Our brain is programmed to hide our vulnerabilities and overcompensate for them in the usual “good manners” we have learned over the years. This pressure to be right amplifies for sensitive subjects like diversity and inclusion. So, how do you build psychological safety without any forms of tokenizing? By openly embracing your vulnerabilities and encouraging others around you. Some ways to start could be:

• Consciously check your language. Your words, tone, body language all go into defining your communication style.
• Take accountability where you can (with “I” vs. “We” language) and be willing to share your own emotions as much as permissible in the conversations.
• Learn to unlearn. Remember, your knowledge and the sources of that knowledge is always expanding. Be willing to ask authentic questions and learn new answers. These questions can be to the books you read, the known close circle of people you have, or the new colleagues you meet in the next local AFP/APRA/another professional org’s networking event.
• Prepare to spend time to answer, “who are you?”. The more you understand yourself better, the more you can be prepared to understand others.

?Engaging alumni meaningfully is an ongoing journey. Keep building this list to include the lens of holistic diversity as we crawl, walk, and run on this path, together.