You can never have enough alumni engagement. But as fundraisers, it’s key to engage your alumni in ways that aren’t just around asking for or collecting donations. You’ve got to lay the groundwork for those interactions in ways that excite your base and increase their connection to your institution.
Is all that even possible without blowing your whole budget?
We believe that it is, and we were happy to discover that UCLA agrees with us.
In a recent post on npENGAGE, they shared their strategy for increasing engagement without a spike in spending.
What stood out to us is that they kept things simple, clearly defined their metrics for success, took advantage of all their technology and, once they started tracking data, altered their approach as soon as they saw the first round of results.
In a classic case of keeping things simple, they avoided a big price tag by sticking to events that took place online. Getting everything up and running required a lot of work for the team, of course, but using technology to engage their alumni allowed them to avoid a big price tag.
We won’t spoil it, but after one of their initial events, the data they were tracking pointed to a pretty significant gap in their new approach. So they adjusted quickly, and addressed it almost immediately. And their second round of events helped to fill in the original shortcomings.
Trying to increase alumni engagement can seem like a daunting task. We get it. But reading about UCLA’s approach reminded us that it’s far from an impossible problem. Decide what’s important to your organization, choose how to measure it then get creative and iterate. You don’t have to change the department all at once, but as you iterate over time, you’ll make a huge impact.
Want an easy place to start? Everyone has access to LinkedIn, and it’s got a ton of tools you can take advantage of to engage our alumni. Learn more here.