In your fund-raising efforts, you are most likely focusing on the constituents who are with your school now—current families. But what about your alumni? Alumni and their families are some of your biggest fans, and you should strive to keep them “in the family.” Often, your alumni constituency is a lightly tapped, or untapped, source of support.
Your alumni should remain a part of your school’s “family” no matter how long they have been gone. But you have to show alumni that they are important to your school, even without the tuition check, by investing your attention in them. You can start with a strong Alumni Advisory Board, with carefully selected members who have continued to keep an interest by attending events and making gifts to your campaigns. Alumni who were leaders during their time at the school can be a great help for pulling their disaffected peers back into the fold.
Alumni and alumni parents who believe in your school are invaluable when it comes to buzz—word-of-mouth marketing for student recruitment and retention. So, your Board’s primary function should be “friend raising” before it tackles fund raising. If your school ends at or below the middle-school level, cultivating your alumni parents is even more important.
Ultimately, your goal when building your alumni program is to create a connectedness to—and an ownership of—your school. Bringing your alumni back to campus for gatherings will help in that effort.
And what about your soon-to-be alumni? When families are moving on to another level—college—they will establish new allegiances. All the more reason you should cultivate the current families who are about to move on now, while they are still attached to your school. Upper schools have a logical place to start—with the senior class.
The John Carroll School (MD) does a “Senior 100 Days Breakfast” falling 100 days before graduation. “It’s a nice, sit down breakfast first thing in the morning. We have alumni greeters, and an alum assigned to each table,” says Laura Lang, Director of Annual Giving and Constituent Relations. She notes that the Alumni Association Chair welcomes everyone, and then a recent graduate—usually a college senior—gives a brief talk. Each senior receives a small token gift from the Alumni Association (flash drive, laundry bag, JC flip flops, etc.). The President then makes an “ask.” “This year it’s a pledge of $20.11 each year for the next four years. Ours is called the Patriot Pledge because we are the Patriots, but you can use something catchy that relates to your school.”
With all your constituencies, communication is imperative, and it keeps them close to your school. Keep your alumni and alumni parents up on the happenings at your school, and encourage them to submit class notes. If you only contact them at annual fund time, you are implying that they are only important when a check is needed. Communication can be print, electronic, or both. Given the popularity of social media, private-independent schools are establishing school pages and alumni pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networking sites to keep in touch. You may also be able to find “lost” alumni via social media connections.
Creating an online community can also help your alumni stay in touch with each other using interactive devices that your Web site is equipped with, such as online forums and chat rooms. You can create specialized e-mails, too, (graduate@thepointschool.org for example) if you have that capability. Online communities are becoming more and more prominent, and will foster the bond you need to cultivate your alumni.
Give you alumni an “easy to find” place in your home page navigation. Don’t bury it in sub-navigation (such as in the “Giving” drop-down menu, which almost labels alumni as a source of financial support only).
Lausanne Collegiate School (TN) alumni page includes information on alumni events, issues of the alumni newsletter for download, and a link to the Alumni Fund for Financial Aid. Solomon Schechter Day School of Boston’s (MA) alumni page includes a photo gallery and a page for alumni parents as well. Chaminade College Preparatory (CA) is even more extensive, including password-protected career networking, alumni notes, class pages, mentoring, and even a lost alumni page.
Your alumni are your alumni forever. You start cultivating them (and their parents) while they are current students and then keep them in the loop from the minute they leave your campus. Alumni are a rich resource you don’t want to lose.
