What Colleges Can Learn From Companies About Alumni Relations

When you hear the term “alumni relations” you probably think of a university engaging its graduates to support the school, foster connections, open doors for students and carry the university’s brand out into the world. Alumni operations have been a part of higher education, in some form, for centuries. Over the years, schools have developed and refined extremely sophisticated systems for engaging their graduates, and many have been successful at translating this engagement into valuable contributions of time, talent and resources.

But there’s another type of alumni relations—corporate alumni relations—and while it’s a newer field by comparison, it is teeming with insights that can be applied to higher ed. 

Many professional services companies today have departments dedicated to building engagement among former employees. There are several reasons companies invest in alumni programs, but it often boils down to an organization intrinsically valuing its employees and recognizing the power they hold even after they leave.

Having worked in higher ed and corporate alumni programs, I have a unique vantage point into both worlds. There are some obvious similarities—for instance, schools and companies both use digital media and local events to keep in touch and bring alumni together. There are also some glaring differences—most prominently, the fact that companies don’t seek donations from their former employees to sustain operations. As a big believer in cross-pollination of ideas between industries, here are my thoughts on what colleges can learn from companies about alumni relations: 

You can’t lean on nostalgia; the value proposition must be clear. 

For many people, standing on the Quad of their college campus evokes rich memories of friendship, hijinks, love, learning and coming into their own personal identities. Standing in the elevator bank at their former company may bring back some warm memories, but for the average ex-employee, the emotional connection to a former company is a bit different and less tinged with nostalgia. For this reason, most companies focus their alumni programs not on reminiscing about the good old days but instead on providing distinct, present-day value. For example:

• Tune in for a webinar with an alum who holds a unique position at a cool company. Learn something new!
• Come to a networking mixer where you’ll meet people in your industry who might like to do business with you. 
• Find job leads that are curated for people with your exact skill sets.
• Connect with other alumni to discover local philanthropic efforts to which you can contribute. 

Schools, of course, have a uniquely powerful emotional bond to tap into, but I think that many can do a better job of meeting alumni where they are today—not 5, 10, 20 years ago—and offering them engagement opportunities that enrich their lives and add value. Nostalgia is a great way to initially re-interest alumni, but you need to provide substance to keep them coming back. This means giving them access to people, places, things and ideas that they can’t get anywhere else.

Less is more, when it comes to communication. 

Interestingly, many corporate alumni programs send a monthly or quarterly newsletter into which all important news, stories, and event invitations are included. That’s it. They recognize that their alumni are multi-faceted humans who receive communication from lots of other organizations, so they keep their frequency of messaging to a minimum. 

Schools, on the other hand, seem to be much more liberal with contacting alumni. It’s not unusual for schools to send multiple email announcements to alumni per week—often from various departments or sub-units with which an alum has affinity—on top of any phone solicitations or print mail items that might be on the calendar. Each communication has a unique purpose, but I wonder if schools could benefit by experimenting with the “less is more” approach. Anecdotally, I know quite a few corporate alumni leaders who enjoy very high email open rates (30 to 50%), while many schools complain that alumni ignore their e-mails. Perhaps frequency of communication plays a role.

If it’s not working, move on.

Higher ed alumni programs have been around for decades, so schools often get in the habit of executing certain annual activities “on autopilot,” as I like to call it. These events or initiatives were once probably very useful for engaging large numbers of alumni, but over the years they waned in effectiveness and now they take place simply because “we’ve done it for X years.” There’s usually a small, loyal group of supporters for these legacy initiatives, but no real rationale for why they should exist today.

In contrast, corporate alumni programs tend to be newer—many just started in the last five or ten years—so there’s less entrenched thinking about past activities and more agility to innovate for the present day. With limited resources, even more limited staffing structures, and a need to prove return-on-investment, you don’t often see resources funneled into initiatives that generate little engagement. Schools could benefit from being more rigorous in their ongoing evaluation of alumni activities. It’s OK to say something isn’t working and move on.

Leverage the alumni community for key input.

I’ve been impressed by companies (like LinkedIn!) that keep their alumni in the inner circle and ask for input as they roll-out new services, products and features. They go a step beyond transparency; they actually integrate alumni views into their work, which shows a deep level of respect for the alumni and, in turn, earns past employees' ongoing loyalty and commitment.

Higher ed has plenty of advisory boards and councils to solicit alumni guidance from select experts, but what if the broader alumni community had more opportunities—perhaps at a micro level—to provide input? Instead of simply feeling like past degree holders, they would start to feel like serious stakeholders with a voice in the future of the institution. I believe this sense of ownership would help to inspire gifts of time and money. 

What do you think colleges can learn from the corporate sector? I am curious to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

This post represents my personal views on alumni relations. This is not necessarily a reflection of the views of my past or present employers.