How machine learning can help scale alumni and donor engagement

Since joining Protopia, I’ve enjoyed an insider’s view on exactly how machine learning technology can assist alumni and donor engagement pros as well as the stakeholders we serve. As it turns out, technology powered by machine learning can help save time and provide a personalized experience too. I thought I’d share a little bit about what I’ve learned.?

In our everyday lives, many of the things around us are powered by advanced machine learning technology. For example, when I tell Alexa to play a song, her machine brain runs that question through the algorithms Amazon created against all the song data that the company has access to and promptly plays the tune if it can find it. When I ask Alexa other types of questions, the machine has learned how to respond with a verbal reply and an action.?Alexa also starts to understand my preference the more questions I ask her.

The machine has been taught to respond to questions and effectively personalize an aspect of our everyday experience. The device has been trained and has learned how to break apart the different queries into parts, run the terms against its available data set, and respond by taking action. As the end-user, I don’t have to select an app on my phone, search for the song, and then hit play. Instead, the technology saves me time and provides a simple convenience that I’ve come to appreciate.

Machines learn from humans solving problems so that the machine can, with increasing confidence, solve that problem for us. Eventually, the machine can solve the problem faster and more efficiently.?

AI is already in higher ed

An example of using machine learning-powered solutions in higher ed are the chatbots on college admissions pages. Prospective students can ask questions and the machine runs a query against the content available for it to search, presumably the .edu website and other digital resources, and answers their questions. Administrative staff can then become the backup to the machine working to find the correct answer and send a response.?

Much of our work as alumni engagement professionals centers around activating the university network by introducing people who can then ask questions and get advice from each other.??

For example, it’s routine for engagement professionals to introduce a student or recent graduate with an alum who might be able to help somehow. Or in another situation, we might introduce two more professionally established alumni with similar interests looking to build their networks. We make these types of introductions almost daily. It’s part of the core of what we do.

Machine learning technology can help us make introductions at scale

All the work we do introducing individuals who can help each other is a crucial part of building a vibrant university community and activating students, alumni, and donors. Although we still need to educate students and recent grads on how to reach out effectively so they can introduce themselves to alumni that may be willing and able to help, our ability to grow efforts in this area, to scale the number of introductions we can make, requires new machine learning technology.?

With machine learning, we can with high confidence match a question from a student or recent graduate to individuals within the entire alumni network that might be able to help based on the data that’s available — degree, graduation year, skills, location, industry, professional affiliation — and ensure that alumni receive questions they find to be relevant to their experiences. We can also ask for more information to help personalize these questions in the future, like affinity-based preferences or topics that might be of interest.

Over time and after processing thousands of questions, the machine can learn the types of questions that get asked and process how to help, kinda like Alexa understanding our voices and our tastes.?

Ultimately, machine learning enables us to provide a resource for our alumni, students, and campus partners working to engage their communities while taking “connection services” to the next level. AI technology gives us the power to automate mundane, repeatable tasks at scale so that our teams can focus on building programs and strengthening relationships.?

Ryan is an engagement strategist and consultant with?Chris Marshall Advancement Consulting?and Network Catalyst with?Protopia. Protopia provides an AI-powered, app-less solution for connecting students and alumni. Follow Ryan on twitter @RyanCatherwood or on Instagram @rcatherwood. Listen to archived episodes of?Advancement Live?or the?Advancement Legends?podcast.?