It is no secret that the alumni associations are pivotal to an institution’s alumni engagement. Because these associations are solely driven by the purpose of benefiting the alumni and developing the institution, by leveraging the resources that both parties possess, associations can create long-lasting impacts that can boost alumni engagement for an institution and create opportunities for the alumni.
When structured and organized effectively, an alumni association can significantly enhance the institution’s image and standing in the educational sphere. This is achieved by leveraging the influence and resources of alumni, who, when they understand the ongoing value of their alma mater, can become powerful advocates. Alumni associations play a crucial role in demonstrating this value to the alumni through their various activities.
Alumni organizations come up with many initiatives, activities, and programs to engage, utilize and raise awareness among the alumni. So, here are some major, essential functionalities that an ideal alumni association conducts to boost an institution’s alumni engagement:
1. Regular Communication
One of the primary duties of an alumni association is to keep alumni in the loop about the institution. This regular communication fosters a sense of belonging and connection, as it brings alumni up to date about how their alma mater is faring.
It involves sending monthly or quarterly newsletters and magazines that highlight the institution’s significant updates and achievements. Also, having a dedicated press release page on the alumni portal will bring instant updates to the alumni.
Managing the institution’s and alumni association’s social media accounts will help in reaching your audience quickly. Posting interesting digital content like photos, videos, and polls that highlight alumni achievements, major institutional milestones, workshops, events, and talks can act as effective touchpoints for the alumni to interact with their alma mater.
Tag your alumni and encourage them to share some lesser-known facts and experiences when they were students. This creates a bond with your institution, and alumni will realize that they are still being remembered.
2. Alumni Events
Alumni associations regularly conduct alumni events. These events can be the perfect opportunity for the alums to reconnect with their lost acquaintances, make new friends, and immerse themselves in nostalgia.
Events like global reunions and homecomings bring in alums from across the world. These are conducted annually or once every two years. While these work on a larger scale, the association can also conduct smaller events like family picnics and sports events regularly for its alumni to bond and form a community.
Here are some amazing alumni event ideas for your institution to conduct memorable alumni events!
Professional Networking Events
Alumni offices also organize professional networking events where alumni can increase their connections and boost their image. Conducting professional mixers where younger and older alumni can meet and network, industry-specific webinars & workshops where alumni can upskill themselves.
Conducting student-alumni networking events can help the former to land internships and placements. Students can also form connections with alumni. These events can be in-person or online, depending on the event and the audience.
Community Service Events
Associations also conduct community services. It organizes marathons, food drives, clothing donations, and free classes for children to uplift underwhelming communities. These events can also be an excellent exercise for alumni to bond with each other and build community.
3. Mentoring & Career Opportunities for Students
Mentoring can be a powerful tool for students to ace their interviews, create solid resumes, build innovative projects, and learn about industries. Alumni associations can facilitate this process by bringing in alumni mentors who can guide students on all fronts.
This not only benefits the students but also strengthens the bond between the alumni and the institution, enhancing alumni engagement and institutional development.
Alumni offices can shortlist qualified alumni for students based on their professional experience, skills and industries. Even better, let students find their mentors by providing them with the alumni information. Alumni can help students with upskilling, real-time projects, resume review, and interview preparation. Experienced alumni can help young alumni who are switching companies and navigating career transitions.
Planning to enroll your alumni for mentoring? Here’s how you can design a mentoring program for your students!
Associations can also bring placements and internship opportunities to students. Alumni can refer company HRs for hiring students, and CXOs can bring their
companies to placement drives, and alumni entrepreneurs can offer internships to final-year students. It will be easy for the Training & Placement Officer (TPO) to contact top alumni executives who can refer their HRs.
4. Fundraising
An alumni association can be instrumental in engaging alumni and bringing them closer to the institution again. Associations conduct regular fundraising campaigns where alumni can donate funds that can be used for various institutional needs. This act of giving back can fill alumni with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Successful alumni have the potential to make large donations. These contributions can be utilized to fund scholarships, industrial projects, build and improve infrastructure and much more for the institution. Having an alumni association will make it easy for the institution to attract alumni.
Associations also receive smaller contributions in the form of membership fees. The alumni paying fees are awarded premium/life member status and can enjoy some perks such as participation in association elections and access to campus facilities, to name a few. The money collected from alumni can be utilized to conduct alumni engagement activities.
5. Alumni Chapters
Alumni chapters are location-specific groups where alumni residing in the same geographical area come together and form a community. Alumni associations can mobilize their members to create these groups in various cities.
Alumni offices can identify active alumni in the cities where the majority of the alumni live and encourage them to mobilize them. These alumni representatives will get in touch with the active alumni in each batch and assist them in bringing them together. These alumni chapters can become tight-knit communities where the alumni can help each other in various things.
To boost engagement, chapters can also conduct regular activities. Alumni associations can also help them in hosting engagement activities. This also comes under alumni engagement as the association is hand-holding the alumni to form the chapters, and these function under the guidance of the association.
6. Building and Maintaining Alumni Database
To bring alumni together, engage them, and generate value for them and the institution, alumni associations must have a detailed pool of alumni information outlining all the crucial details. Building and maintaining an alumni database has to be one of the important functionalities of an alumni association, as it can bring alumni together and be close to the institution. An alumni directory can also be built using information that can bring alumni together.
Alumni associations should come up with a set of objectives as to how the alumni database should help them and the institution. Then, the existing data at hand will be analyzed to identify the data gaps and segregate the outdated information from the fresh, helpful information. Then, come up with strategies to encourage alumni to register for the alumni database.
Here’s how your institution can build an alumni database from scratch!
Alumni associations can leverage a full-fledged alumni database to conduct alumni events and host webinars and seminars on upskilling, career guidance and industry insights. Professional details such as work history, skills, and experience can come in handy for student mentoring.
Associations can also create special interest groups (SIGs) where alumni with similar professional backgrounds can get in touch with each other. It also generates alumni reports, which can help with rankings and accreditations.
Winding It Up!
Alumni associations are the bridges between the institution and the alumni. These act as the reliable point of contact for the alumni through which they learn everything about their alma mater after graduation. From communication to mentoring and conducting events to database management, there’s nothing an alumni association can’t do!
The purpose of every alumni association is the same: to help alumni in every way possible and to improve the institution. Make sure every aspect of your association is inclined towards that. Vaave helps institutions and corporate entities across the globe in realizing the power of alumni and offers strategies for engaging them. We provide a full-fledged alumni management ecosystem that helps you to leverage alumni to its fullest.
Drop in your details at hello@vaave.com & +91 91006 88850, we will get in touch with you at the drop of a hat!