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how University Whether graduates engage with their alma maters can reflect the health and value of their alma maters, observers say. Alumni engagement can take many forms, from informal mentoring to multimillion-dollar donations, and has many benefits for schools and current students.
The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, an association of nonprofit educational institutions, reported in February that U.S. colleges and universities received $58 billion in financial endowments for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. While that amount was down 2.5% from the previous year’s record high, such voluntary philanthropic support has been on the rise in recent years—even as many polls show that much of the American public has lost trust in education. value Received university education.
The recent level of donations “should be a source of celebration and pride,” caseThe survey report states: “The fact that so many individuals and organizations support colleges and universities demonstrates a nationwide recognition of the tremendous value these institutions provide by changing lives and societies. Recent headlines have often cast a negative light on the value of higher education institutions. However, the trust demonstrated by this level of philanthropy tells a different story. Kudos to those who choose to donate and to those who work at institutions that educate future generations and conduct research that saves and improves lives.”
Cara Giacomini, vice president of data, research and technology at CASE, talks about alumni engagement in the U.S., its relationship to institutional growth and the importance of maintaining connections between graduates and their alma mater. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: For many people, alumni engagement at a university means giving money or returning to campus for events like homecoming or graduation. What is the bigger picture of alumni engagement?
At CASE, we tend to break alumni engagement into four main categories, and that starts to give rise to a bigger picture. It really extends to experiential, which includes all the different activities and interactions that people have with their institutions—all kinds of events that bring people together, whether virtual or in person. We also look at volunteering, which can be anything from student mentoring to career coaching to committee involvement. Of course, we track philanthropy, too, and making donations to support institutions is one of the main categories of people’s engagement. And then we also look at communication, actively participating in communications with institutions. Not just opening emails or reading them, but taking actions, like responding to surveys, evaluating programs or events, and making sure your institution can reach out to you if your contact information changes. We also see ways that people are engaging starting to surface, which can be support for student recruitment, career placement, institutional advocacy. Sometimes, we think of alumni as being key to growing corporate partnerships and investments in research and development. All of this points to the fact that alumni engagement is really about building a larger community and keeping that community active after graduation.
Q: Based on CASE data and research, what trends do you see in alumni engagement and what do these trends mean?
We’ve been tracking alumni engagement data for five years now, which is new for some of our institutions because it means pulling data from a variety of different sources. Not just tracking people’s giving to the institution — we tend to have very good records because we need them for taxes — but then thinking about how we learn to track where someone attends events, how they volunteer, and how that plays out across the institution, which sometimes takes a while to collect. One big thing we’ve noticed is how collaborative it really is. Also, we don’t expect that their interests will stay fixed in the department where they received a scholarship over the years. degreeThey participate in different ways based on their changing interests. Many institutions are beginning to think about incorporating participation into their events. When institutions run large events to raise money for new programs and causes, we are beginning to see participation goals move into those events because people understand that this type of participation is critical to the long-term success of the institution.
Q: What is the historical relationship between alumni engagement and institutional development? How has it changed?
One of the ways we talk about this work at CASE is by thinking about integrated development. We think of development as having multiple facets. There’s the development office that raises money, and there’s the alumni relations component. Those two parts often work really collaboratively, even if the organizational structures are different, along with marketing and communications. When you really look at the brand and reputation of the institution, what the external footprint looks like, that’s where development really comes together. When you think about integrated development, it’s all of those ways that extend beyond the institution and serve the larger community, and all of those ways come together in a coordinated way—some institutions are all under one roof, some are more organizationally decentralized in how they work, but information flows through all of them. Over time, the understanding of all of the components that are involved in development has been growing.
Q: What is the biggest reason alumni stay connected to their alma mater? What are the biggest reasons they don’t stay connected?
The biggest reason people engage with their alma mater is the community. They were part of the community while they were there, and they’ve been able to stay connected to the community in various ways since they graduated. So you’re able to connect with alumni from different generations just knowing that they had a common experience. Also, people are often able to foster those connections within the larger community, whether it’s in-person or online events. It also matters what stage they’re in their career. As people progress in their careers, their alma mater can be very valuable at different times, whether it’s reskilling or building connections when they’re fresh out of school, or thinking about the greater impact of their careers that they can give back to as they progress in their careers. Also, we see a lot of people wanting to give back after they’ve received financial support for their education. This is true for myself as well – I feel the need to give back the benefits that you experienced as a student to ensure that others have similar opportunities. I would say that we can also give back to the greater cause or to later students in various ways, such as mentoring, career advice, internship programs, and lifelong learning.
Why don’t people engage? We’ve found there are a few different reasons. One is that they didn’t have a good experience as a student, so they don’t feel connected to the school. Also, if the relationship with the school is just transactional, if all they hear is someone asking them for money and they don’t make a deeper connection, they don’t feel that engaged.
Q: With wealthy alumni of some elite colleges and universities publicly announcing they are halting financial donations due to what they say is anti-Israel activity on campus, what long-term impact might this have on alumni giving and institutional growth?
It’s too early to tell. We’ll see the effects over the next few years, maybe even our lifetimes. I think one thing we have to keep in mind is that universities and colleges, if they do their job well, tend to be the focal point for a lot of these discussions because they’re about the exchange of ideas. We’ve seen that in a lot of moments where big events are happening, Campus proteststhere was unrest in the country—we saw the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, segregation, fossil fuel divestment, the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter—a lot of these conversations are happening on college campuses in one form or another. I think we’re going to continue to see this as one of the spaces where important conversations and issues unfold at our colleges. As time goes on, we’re going to have a deeper sense of what this means for the experience of current students and alumni of these schools. It’s critical that all students feel safe and supported by their institutions during this challenging time. The work that colleges have done to maintain relationships with students, alumni, and make it a place where it’s safe to have discussions really sets the tone for how communities can come together over the long term. So, this is not something new. This is a specific conversation we’re having right now.
Q: Besides the school, who ultimately benefits from alumni engagement and how?
When educational institutions thrive, society as a whole benefits because they are where innovation happens, where learning breaks new ground, where personal transformation happens for students. They are where people are taught all sorts of different skills, where ideas are explored, and where we can solve new problems that society needs to solve. So when educational institutions are strong, everyone benefits. Sometimes that benefit is tangible, like the economic impact on the surrounding community, the success of graduates. But it’s also the larger societal issues that we solve through the work that the institution does. Having engaged alumni is a sign that the institution is thriving, that the institution is able to bring together those ideas to show the progress that we’re making and become a real center of innovation and knowledge in the communities that it impacts, whether that’s the physical community or the larger community. I also think that alumni engagement can also benefit people in practical ways. Future students can look to alumni as role models. Alumni can provide them with job placement and career guidance. And then the ability to continue to participate in research and academic discussions and sometimes just a deep community that cheers for the same goal. Sports Teams Alumni engagement brings people together and allows people to feel connected to those around them. But ultimately, the importance of alumni engagement lies in the various nested communities. It shows that your education has impacted you far beyond your time as a student, that you have become part of something greater than yourself.
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