Alumni Relations has long been seen as essentially a PR office for the extended community of the college, something like Shareholder Relations in a private corporation. As such, it is often positioned as a “should do” rather than a “must do” activity – an overhead expense rather than a critical investment in the institution’s future. This is a huge problem for many schools: their alumni are relatively disengaged and provide relatively modest financial support.

Our view is that Alumni Relations, not Development, is the critical team that determines the success or failure of alumni fundraising before it is attempted. Why? Fundraisers, who are uninformed about the “relationship” between the institution and its alumni, are not able to maximize the opportunities for success. They will not appreciate that the act of soliciting funds in its own right can advance or retard the development of a strong relationship between the alumnus and the academy.

The Cognitive Marketing team works with Alumni Relations staff and volunteers to conduct a full audit of all current “official” alumni relations activities as well as with admissions, development/advancement, communications, and academic departments to identify all the other ways the alumni of the institution are reached, for what purpose, and to what effect. We will analyze this input and prepare an assessment report that maps all the points of intersection between the alumni and the institution in a given year, and make specific recommendations for the fine-tuning or complete rethinking of alumni relations outreach to accomplish specific goals. Contact Lisa Strasenburgh, Senior Consultant via phone at 888.241.4411, ext. 25 or email to find out more about our services for alumni engagement.