My 7 secret ingredients to successfully engage young alumni
Alastair Lee
Advancement Consulting Specialist ?Alumni Engagement Growth Strategies ?Fundraising Campaign Planning and Strategies ?Market Research ?Enrolment Growth Strategies ?Mentoring & Coaching ?Masterclasses & Short Courses
If you are responsible for alumni relations at your organisation you no doubt find engaging young alumni to be one of the most challenging aspects of the role.
I’ve always found engaging young alumni one of the more frustrating, yet at the same time, most rewarding parts of my job.?
Compared to other alumni cohorts, it always seems that we need to do so much more work to get their attention and then keep them engaged for any length of time.?
So why do we bother then? Why go to all the effort of engaging this recalcitrant group of alumni?
Well that is an easy one! Because young alumni are the future of your organisation. They will play a major role in the financial prosperity of your organisation going forward. They will ultimately be your organisation’s future proofers.
When done well, engaging young alumni leads to many important benefits for education institutions such as volunteering, growing industry influence, increase brand recognition, enrolments and even fundraising.?
Yet as an industry, we are getting it badly wrong when it comes to engaging young alumni – and sadly as practitioners we know we are making a hash of it too.
Recent research by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) shows that globally:
Hmm Houston it seems we have a problem…
So what is the solution? How can we more effectively engage younger alumni?
Well, there is no simple and magic fix here. It is going to take a lot of time, hard work and patience (especially from senior leadership) before realising any of the benefits that flow from engaging young alumni - let alone holding their attention spans long enough to engage.
However fear not! I am going to share with you my very own special never-fail seven ingredient recipe to help set you up for success and save you some valuable time and work in the process.
1. Establish why you want to engage with them (now and into the future)
This is an important fundamental for any alumni program and particularly when it comes to engaging young alumni.?
What does your organisation ultimately want out of the relationship? What are you willing to give back to them? Why would they want to engage with you? These are some of the vital questions that need to be addressed by any alumni program, as the answers then dictate your engagement direction and tactics.?
This ingredient is also a living one. Over time as your program and relationship matures with your young alumni, so will your strategic priorities and approaches also change and develop.
2. Have a plan within a plan and a program within a program
What we know from industry research from CASE also, is that alumni aged between 23-38 will be quickest to drop their affiliation with their alma mater if their expectations aren’t met, more so than any other age demographic.
Tailoring your approach to young alumni and taking the time to formulate a standalone engagement plan and program for them (in addition to other alumni cohorts) is critical for future success and help will ensure that you have a clear relationship-building roadmap and measurements for success.?
Tailoring tactics and strategies also shows your young alumni that you are serious about meeting their needs, value their support and want to build a meaningful lifelong association with them. Ultimately it is trust-building 101!
3. Do your research to know your demographic
I often find with our clients that it is the lack of any thorough research that derails an otherwise well-intentioned engagement program for young alumni.?
It is very important to spend the time to really get to know who you are engaging with. What are their likes and dislikes? Where do they spend time? What events will attract them? And well, you get the picture…
You can do this research in many ways, using vehicles such as regular surveys, social media polls, focus groups and customer persona audits. If you don’t have the time, then you may even hire a consultants like me to do the research for you.?
4. Engage them early
When engaging young alumni, my advice is to start as early as possible and well before they graduate.?
Ensure students get to rub shoulders with graduates as often as possible at your special events, and volunteering activities or career development days. Also make sure your students have LinkedIn profiles and are also signed up to your alumni program before they leave – it makes them easier to locate after they graduate and connect in. You may even look to start a class giving program to foster a culture of giving.
Whatever tactics you use, just ensure you keep the regular engagement going after graduation and avoid the trap of only contacting alumni when your organisation wants something from them or when the next ten-year reunion is on.
5.?Focus on their needs first
Our young alumni face significant challenges when they graduate, and they still need (and likely expect) the continuing support and guidance of your organisation on the early stages of the adult life journey. So it is important to build your engagement strategy around their needs primarily.?
Services connected to career and personal development, mentoring, networking, and volunteering are more likely to resonate than nostalgia-focussed event such as reunions.
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Ultimately, the most important three questions to ask are – What is my organisation’s value proposition to its young alumni? Why would they want to engage with us? What does our research tell us we should focus on?
6. Relevant and convincing content
Here the focus should be not only engaging young alumni but also persuading them to take action.
We know from much research around the globe that young alumni are captivated by compelling stories from authentic people they can relate to. We also know that this demographic responds best to a combination of communication platforms and approaches - surprisingly, face-to-face activities are their favoured medium.
Whatever the platform, ensure your content is highly relevant to the audience and delivers enough consistent value that your young alumni will want to remain engaged, if not feel compelled to take positive action like coming to an event or volunteering.?
Also they make sure they know about the content by promoting it widely and across different channels multiple times.
7. Keep showing up
Consistency breeds trust and trust is at the epicentre of all enduring relationships. And it is no different with your young alumni.?
It is important to keep showing up and consistently inviting engagement with your young alumni even if they don’t appear interested at the time – because it helps to engender their trust and affinity.
Keep reminding them of the benefits of being alumni of your organisation and how you can support them on their life journey. Tell their stories, actively seek their feedback, support them with meaningful engagement opportunities and connect in with them on a personal level and I guarantee they will eventually listen and engage when they feel ready.?
The worst thing you can do at this point of your program is give up due to a perceived lack of action on the part of your young alumni – it’s at those times you should look to double your engagement efforts.
Conclusion
By implementing these seven key ingredients consistently and sustainably, I have always found young alumni are more likely to support their alma mater and seek to maintain a connection throughout their lives. All it then requires is for your organisation to do the necessary hard work and stay the course!
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About the author
Alastair Lee is an international award-winning senior thought leader in the Australian education advancement industry and has held many key leadership positions over the last two decades in enrolment marketing, admissions, alumni, and fundraising at all levels in the education sector.
He is also the Founding Director of AlumGrow Consultancy – a firm specialising in enrolment marketing research, brand development and advancement strategy for the education and not-for-profit industries.?
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