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ALUMNI RELATIONS & FUNDRAISING. The challenges and the successes. WHY HAVE ALUMNI RELATIONS?. Alumni Relations can play key role in underpinning your institutional effort Alumni are ready and waiting to be engaged – a wonderful time, advocacy and funding resource
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ALUMNI RELATIONS & FUNDRAISING The challenges and the successes
WHY HAVE ALUMNI RELATIONS? • Alumni Relations can play key role in underpinning your institutional effort • Alumni are ready and waiting to be engaged – a wonderful time, advocacy and funding resource • The more alumni feel engaged and in touch the more inclined they are to donate and to open their networks
KEY INGREDIENTS • Know and understand your audience – (research and data, data, data!!) • Have a plan to keep alumni in touch • It’s all about being flexible and thinking laterally – can’t do it all in isolation • Have a balanced programme – events, communications, volunteering, benefits and services
THE ALUMNI COMMUNITY • 150,000alumni who live in 180 countries. This will rise to c.175,000 by 2015. Two thirds of alumni live in the UK. • It is estimated that UCL is in touch with 70% of all living UCL alumni • Over 50% of all alumni graduated within the last 15 years. Top threelargest departments – Faculty of Laws, Faculty of Built Environment and School of Life and Medical Sciences
ALUMNI CONNECTIONS • Myriad of different motivating factors that drive ongoing alumni connections to UCL • These factors range from a connection to courses/departments, clubs and societies, halls of residence and classmates through to academic staff.
EXAMPLE: STUDENT / YOUNG ALUMNI ACTIVITY • To develop a supportive alumni community you need to start with the student experience and develop a habit of involvement immediate after graduation • Dominant aim is to weave alumni and alumni relations into the fabric of student life • Experience has shown that success in this area is derived from providing tangible benefits to the student community
ALUMNI RELATIONS & FUNDRAISING • It is a two way relationship – both need one another to be a success • Interest, involve and commit - the more engagement alumni feel the more inclined they are to give money/time to an institution • It’s a long-term business • Team work – shared objectives and goals – Alumni team needs to consider fundraising as part of their activities and fundraisers must think about alumni and wider school activities
EXAMPLES • Fundraising messages are integrated into UCL alumni communications and events • Academic speakers at events will ask alumni to consider donating to UCL • Alumni contacts can provide opportunities to engage key donors and prospects • Alumni can also identify ‘lost’ class mates who may be good prospects
NETWORKING • Clubs and societies • Award-winning professional networking events • Alumni-led reunions • Departmental events • International events
COMMUNICATIONS • Redesigned ‘UCL People’ - backbone of printed communication which all alumni receive • Alumni email newsletters, the Alumni Web Community, Alumni Website, Social networking presences and Online Surveys
VOLUNTEERING • Careers mentoring – over 300 alumni currently act as a careers mentor and speak at UCL events (e.g. graduation ceremonies) • 250 alumni act as International Contacts – involves them in acting as a local contacts for alumni, organising local alumni groups and assisting with student recruitment
REGULAR GIVING • Why engage alumni? • To translate engagement into multiple levels that includes giving to your university • But why do alumni give?
What motivates giving • Pride • Acknowledgement for what they gained from their experience at UCL • Desire to protect what they value • Commitment to social mobility and how education is the key to this • Commitment to the transformational impact of education
A Case Study • Ralph – donor, volunteer and son studying at UCL today • Initially identified by regular giving as a donor with capacity to give more • Engaged by alumni relations as a mentor • Asked to sign appeal letters and attend a CASE event to provide a donor testimonial • Started giving £40 pm – now giving £2K per year
Fundraising is telling stories • We use students and key members of staff to tell stories to our alumni about the need for their support (using the hooks of what we know motivates giving) • Ask multiple times throughout the year – telling different stories and using different signatories • People give to people – for us we have found that students receiving scholarships and key academics generate the most response from alumni • What is your university’s story – where do the key relationships with alumni lie?
