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Every School A Community A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Author: Abigail Nokes

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

About Future First Global Future First Global’s vision is that any school, anywhere, should be making the most out of their alumni. Former students can have a transformational impact on the learning experience of students, and their ability to make a smooth transition from education into employment. Future First Global works across four areas: dissemination of best practice, consultancy, advocacy and campaigning, in order to support teachers, schools, NGOs and governments in alumni engagement. The organisation has a commitment to fairness and, therefore, prioritises work in communities that might suffer from lower social mobility or higher levels of disadvantage. Future First Global has significant expertise in alumni community building, having grown out of a U.K. charity working with over 400 government funded high schools and it has done additional international research into different alumni models.

Our Thanks We would like to give special thanks to Dr. Sarabajaya Kumar, Laura Partridge, Debbie Penglis and HannahMay Wilson, who dedicated hours of their time to tirelessly advise on and edit the guide. We would also like to thank our best practice advisory group for all their support and for generously sharing their expertise and experience: David Whitaker, Dale Cooper, Gretchen Dobson, Kathy Edersheim, Vicki Fowler, Tricia King, Lou McCarthy, John Middleton, Frankie Mojapelo and Andy Shaindlin.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Contents

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Introduction Executive Summary Building a culture Creating systems Time and talent Keeping alumni engaged over time How to fund and structure the network Case studies Acknowledgements

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Introduction Over 80 alumni experts from Latin America, Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australasia were interviewed in order to put this guide together. Our work has been to turn decades of expertise into something that is simple, practical and robust for schools to refer to everywhere. Schools are far more than centres of pedagogy, they are communities. For generations educational institutions that have invested in their communities have reaped great rewards. They have benefitted from the development of their alumni networks providing them with mentors, work experience providers, career role models, school governors and donors. Once students graduate from these schools, they remain part of the community, alongside their peers and seniors who are available to advise them on next career steps, help them launch new businesses and provide a strong social and professional network. To date, this investment in community has largely been the preserve of the world’s elite educational establishments and has ultimately served the communities that arguably least need them. This is now changing. People who attend public high schools are just as likely to want to ‘give back’, they are just less likely to be asked to do so. This report analyses best practice in alumni engagement for educational institutions – both elite institutions leading the way and those public institutions that stand out as they pioneer the model in less affluent communities. 91% of interviewed alumni engagement experts for this study considered their alumni community ‘essential’ to their respective institutions. This report will be a first step toward bringing that ‘essential’ value to educational institutions, everywhere.

There are various misconceptions about alumni communities. They include the following: their main functions are primarily fundraising, reunions and glossy magazines; they require a lot of money; they are something that only happens in the private sector; and that the culture cannot be created if it does not already exist. None of these misconceptions are true. Creating communities is neither quick nor easy, but it is possible and affordable even for schools in the lowestincome areas and it is to schools in these areas, that alumni communities can add most value. According to the alumni experts interviewed for this report, institutional practice (or simple lack of energy and expertise) is often the main barrier that prevents schools from harnessing the potential of their alumni communities, despite most schools having a community of former students who are more than willing to help. This report, in the form of a guide, will set out how schools can create their own alumni communities and culture, by establishing systems, to ensure their communities are well managed, and provide longlasting support to current students, the school itself and alumni. Often, projects with alumni start with a modest amount of time, passion and perseverance and as can be seen in the report they can lead to incredible things. We hope this guide will provide the necessary tools and information to get any volunteer, teacher, school leader, student group or careers advisor started on their community building journey.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Executive summary

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Purpose It’s important to identify a clear purpose for creating the alumni network - you need to know what it aims to achieve and where that sits within your vision for the school, in order to ensure it is a whole school initiative. The earlier you establish the culture with students the better - 87% of experts we spoke to told students about the opportunity to become alumni in their final year of school, if not before. Alumni communities can be effective networks of mutual support – in addition to giving time back to the school or institution, alumni are a brilliant resource to each other as career mentors and a potential source of professional networks and business relationships.

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Passion You need a passionate group driving forward any alumni network. These can be school staff, students or alumni, or a combination of the three but it is crucial that they have a strong knowledge of the school. Peer to peer asks – alumni tend to respond better to ‘asks’ from their peers, and are instrumental in keeping each other connected. Relationships must come before ‘the ask’ - all schools and universities emphasised the importance in investing in building communities, rather than just asking things of the individuals within them.

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Communication Data is crucial - all surveyed institutions had a system in place to store updated data for more effective communication with alumni all over the world. Communicate with alumni on the platforms they use and are familiar with - 94% of those we spoke to about social media emphasised its importance in their communications strategy. Offer a range of opportunities to suit your alumni – alumni vary in age, interests and location so it’s important to provide personalised engagement opportunities to suit them.

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Every School A a Community: The A Guide Role of to Alumni WorkinginWith Supporting Your Alumni the Transition from School to Work

Building a culture Successful alumni engagement starts with creating an environment whereby the expectation for current students to stay involved in their school community is established from the moment they start school. This section discusses the different elements required to foster this environment. This includes: creating a vision, finding the right person to lead the engagement, and establishing the culture with the four distinct groups - alumni, current students, staff and the wider school community.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Creating a vision Given that time and resources are invariably stretched, having both a clear vision and objectives are important for creating or revitalising any network of former students. We suggest the following steps for creating a vision for alumni engagement.

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Establish staff buy-in and how they can benefit - this is essential if alumni engagement is to be sustainable and well-integrated. If staff are involved in conceptualising the vision, they will have greater ownership of the alumni strategy and ensure that objectives are aligned with those of the school more generally. Thinking about the specific challenges your school faces is a useful starting point when considering how alumni can add value and the impact they can have. Examples of different requirements we have found are the need for: more classrooms; volunteers to run extra-curricular activities; and pastoral mentoring support to keep students in school.

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Ask alumni how they would like to contribute and what they would be willing to support - alumni have a unique perspective about what they would have found beneficial during their own days as students at the school and in the context of this, it is essential to understand what contribution they would be willing to make. Bringing them together with your school staff can help to harness enthusiasm and ensure that priorities between these two groups are aligned.

Case study The University of Puerto Rico started engaging with alumni in 2014. They started by sending out a survey on Facebook to ascertain whether alumni would be interested in supporting their former University, and if so how. This would allow them to focus resources on the most popular initiatives.

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Define success and how to get there – at the outset imagine what success over three years would look like and put a long term plan in place, with time-specific actions attached to each objective, to achieve this.

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Don’t try too much at once - initial activity needs to be centred on establishing relationships and how both your alumni and institution can benefit from the engagement. If financial objectives are too ambitious in the first year, it can be too difficult to achieve and both disappointing and demotivating. One institution in Nepal found that initiating a fundraising campaign too soon into their alumni journey yielded poor results and a decline in staff morale and support.

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Build on nostalgia and existing school culture what do alumni most remember about the school? School is a formative part of most young people’s lives, but also a different experience for each institution depending on your culture and context. It’s important to understand the essence of what made this experience special and to continue to bring this to life through communications and activities, since emotional affinity is what will help alumni to reconnect.

you need to dig down into what … [the institution] … means to alumni who love it, and to those who hate it as well so you can begin to get an authentic message across (Chair of the Future First Global Alumni Working Group)

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Establishing a Group In a hectic school environment, alumni engagement can be neglected in the face of other, more pressing issues, and it may falter because it is perceived as a ‘nice to have’ rather than a ‘need to have’. It’s important to identify a specific group, comprising staff members and alumni volunteers, who will take responsibility for driving forward the network and ensuring that it is, and remains, a priority on the school agenda. We suggest the following steps to establishing an alumni engagement group:

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Identify a passionate leader - nearly all institutions emphasised the importance of having a recognised leader of the network. The bond between alumni and their alma mater is both personal and emotional and so you should appoint someone who understands this. It could be a former student or staff member with a keen interest in the community. Someone with experience of managing relationships and projects would be advantageous, but passion is most important initially to generate enthusiasm.

… from a continuity angle, I do think it’s important that they know who they are talking to. I think it’s much harder for someone who has no knowledge of the school to come in and build up that relationship, if you know the people it’s easier to relate to them more quickly (Director of Alumni Relations, Shrewsbury School)

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Involve alumni in this process - alumni have a connection to the school and a vested interest in remaining engaged and informed. They also have the potential to leverage their own networks of former students to quickly garner support. We recommend identifying small groups of alumni from different year groups who might be interested in driving the movement forward with their peers, by reaching out through social media and building the momentum to reconnect.

Case study The Alumni Relations Coordinator at Graded School in Brazil is a former student. She has personal relationships with those who studied at a similar time and has found the response to communications is consequently much higher than her predecessor who wasn’t a former student.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Creating a culture

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Launch a social media campaign – Facebook and LinkedIn are both free online resources that allow you to spread the message. Tapping into different groups of friends and creating pages to post content and opportunities related to alumni relations and the school, helps to build credibility and provide a forum through which to communicate. Get local media on board – Radio and local print papers are examples of how to get the word out to your community. Appointing a spokesperson amongst the alumni to speak to the media is particularly effective. Interviews, photos and coverage of any events can be particularly popular stories for the media.

Create visuals and basic branding – visual material can be powerful. For example - bulletin boards around school, leaflets, posters and online representation on the school website all help to spread the message to students, staff and visitors.

Capitalise on face to face contact – If alumni are visiting the school for any reason, ensure that they are aware of the alumni network and how they can become involved. Staff or students who may show alumni round should be briefed about how to talk about the alumni network.

Identify some high profile alumni – not all schools will have celebrity or high profile alumni, but if you do it is important to reach out to them. They will not only have plenty of connections, but will also have the ability to raise the profile of the network and school more widely.

Put alumni engagement on the agenda at all school meetings – students, parents, alumni, governors and trustees all have an interest in the school’s wellbeing. They might even be former students themselves! They may be able to lend support as well as connect the network to other former students.

Case study Kapsabet Boys in Kenya discovered that one of their alumni worked in a senior position in central government and have leveraged his support and networks. A recent visit to the school brought welcome press coverage and provided content for social media to generate support from other alumni.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Current students It is far more time efficient and cost effective to foster the relationship between the school and students whilst they are still on the school site, rather than tracking them down in years to come. Recent alumni can be powerful role models for current students with recent experience of the transition from school to work. We suggest the following steps for building current student engagement before they leave and become alumni.

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Case study

Case study

Robert Clack School in the U.K. explain on their website - “As a Robert Clack pupil you will always be a special part of our history. By signing up to the Robert Clack alumni you can be an important part of our future too.”

Punahou School in Hawaii, U.S. ask their students to volunteer at school events, four years before they leave the school. This enables the school to identify ambassadors from each year group, as well as establish a culture of volunteering amongst students.

Communicate the message clearly information should be given and expectations set whilst students are still in school, so that they have a clear idea of how they can continue to be engaged after they leave, if they so wish.

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Introduce alumni to current students – inviting alumni to the school to give careers talks, make presentations at awards evenings or host students on work experience placements helps to build a sense of responsibility and expectation for current students, about what can be expected of them, when they become alumni.

Establish the practice of giving By encouraging students to think about giving back to their school community, whilst they are still at school, means that they are more likely to continue to give back after they leave.

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Mobilise existing student groups – if you have a student council, head boys and girls or extra-curricular groups, they can act as ambassadors as they are all well placed to generate enthusiasm amongst their peers helping to ensure leaving cohorts understand the value of staying in touch.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Creating systems Effective alumni engagement depends on the establishment of systems to monitor and maintain it over time. This includes both how to get in touch with alumni, and what to say when you do. Successful communication, and the consequent benefits, hinge on alumni receiving relevant messages at the right time and in the right way for them. This section discusses how to plan a communications strategy, as well as the tools and knowledge required to ensure it is sustainable.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Communication Before deciding what and when to communicate with alumni, it is crucial to decide how. With digitalisation and the growth of social media, it is now easier and cheaper to communicate. 100% of schools interviewed communicated with alumni through at least one online channel, with email and Facebook the most popular. The methods you choose will depend both on resources and context, but it is important to consider which forums your alumni already use to communicate, since it will be easier to engage them on platforms where they are already there. If this varies between generations, we would advise adapting accordingly to successfully reach out to as much of the community as possible.

Table 1: Potential Benefits and Drawbacks of different Communication Methods Benefits

Drawback

Email

• Low cost. • Can be sent to both individuals and groups. • Encourages interaction, easy to reply to. • Easier to personalise. • Instantaneous.

• Easy to ignore. • Can go into spam, trash, junk folder.

Printed magazine

• • • •

• Expensive to produce and send. • Lots of waste if returned mail and alumni have moved.

Online newsletter

• Good for general updates. • Good for engaging with alumni who might not be interested in being active supporters. • Lots of space for varied content to appeal to wide audience.

• Easy to ignore. • Can go into spam.; • Difficult to personalise.

Social media

• Immediate contact. • Can conduct surveys and collect feedback easily. • Instant engagement.

• Limited audience. • Time intensive: need to post regularly engage people well. • More specifics on social media in the next section.

Older alumni respond better. Stands out from mass of online newsletters. People more likely to read more than once. Can send to those who don’t use email.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Benefits

Drawback

Website

• Good for creating the culture and ethos of the network. • Can engage with alumni without needing contact details. • Good for updating news and events.

• Needs updating regularly or can quickly feel dated. • Largely a one-way method of communication.

Telephone

• Can make individual asks - financial or otherwise. • Immediate rise in engagement. • Personal touch.

• Time intensive. • Expensive.

Face-to-face at events

• Best for engagement and enthusiasm. • Individual asks. • Personal touch.

• Time intensive. • Can be expensive to put on.

WhatsApp

• Instant engagement. • Easy to delegate. • Can message individuals or groups.

• Requires a smartphone. • Difficult to manage centrally.

Case study Westlake Girls High School in New Zealand send all of their communications online, which is the cheapest way to communicate. They use Mailchimp to send three e-newsletters per year to share: news about the school, a profile of a former student and a historical feature on the school. They also have a number of Facebook groups, which they use to publicise events and congratulate alumni on any achievements.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Content of communications Deciding what to say to alumni can be difficult, and so consulting with your alumni committee is a valuable way of discerning what they would be interested in hearing about. You need to balance the news you want to share, and things you would like them to be involved with, with their interests to make sure they keep reading the communications. Our suggestions for optimising open rates and engagement are to do the following.

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Send invitations separately - whilst newsletters are one way to highlight important upcoming dates and opportunities to get involved, they can be seen as a passive form of communication and the response rate is consequently lower.

Keep content of newsletters varied - your target audience may range from 16 to 90 years old. Whilst it is difficult to please all readers with every feature, we would advise keeping the content as varied as possible. Content could include: articles on alumni, updates from the school, information about events and a variety of opportunities to get involved. Research found features with an alumni focus to be particularly popular.

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Tailor your invitations – whilst newsletters might be sent to the whole network, you could think about segmenting when it comes to invitations, so that alumni only receive opportunities for things that are age and interest appropriate. Although this might take a bit longer, it is likely to result in higher engagement.

Find your style, and stick to it - it’s important to remember that this is an audience you are not just informing, but that you are building relationships with. Find a tone that reflects this and the school culture, and stick to this to build consistency.

Think about subject lines - it might seem insignificant, but subject lines can have a considerable impact on whether alumni open an email. Institutions that put humour and personal touches in subject lines have found that open rates increased as a result.

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Get as much help as possible - newsletters in particular can be quite time consuming, and so it is important to have as much support as possible to generate interesting and relevant content. Alumni and current students can be a brilliant source of support here. We have established a voice for our alumni community - go with a familiar voice. These are people who have been part of the Ryerson community so we don’t want to come across like we don’t know them. (Alumni Relations Manager, Ryerson University)

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Communication timeline Thinking about when you send messages is also important. Here are some suggestions about mapping that out.

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Communicate enough, but not too much - Alumni should hear from you at least once per month. We would recommend a third to half are general newsletters and other communications are more tailored opportunities or updates. Alumni experts suggest that if you leave it longer than six months between communications, engagement may decline. You should post on social media platforms at least once per week, and ideally more regularly with Twitter.

Be realistic – whilst this sets out the ‘ideal’ regularity of communications, resources are going to vary between schools. If a newsletter is not initially possible then disseminate content through social media and on the website to start with, rather than focusing resources on something that just is not sustainable. It is better that alumni receive little and often, rather than a lot infrequently.

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Build a calendar - once the network gets bigger there is an increasing risk of alumni getting overloaded with messages from different people, it is advised at that point to create a shared calendar with different administrators. This will both regulate communications and avoid clashes.

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Avoid sending on Mondays and Fridays - most people open an email within three hours of it reaching their inbox, so the days surrounding the weekend are not as successful. We would advise sending communications in the middle of the week, and in the morning where possible, for the best open and response rates.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Social media In conjunction with the principals set out above, this section looks at social media communication more specifically, since it operates a bit differently from email, telephone or post. It is a much more immediate forum, which is beneficial for generating support for the school or a specific event quickly, but also requires regular posting of content. Whilst it has taken some time for social media to become commonplace for schools, 94% of experts interviewed said it was an important way of engaging with alumni. It is not only a cheap resource with extensive functionality, but also the space where alumni are already in touch with each other. This section will look at the different platforms schools are using, as well as how best to utilise them to most effectively engage with former students, beyond just having an online presence.

Alumni experts reported that Facebook was the most popular social media platform used for alumni engagement, with 92% using Facebook for engaging alumni on a regular basis. This was followed by LinkedIn, which 64% alumni experts interviewed, use regularly.

Social media platforms used by interviewees Facebook

92% Twitter

31% LinkedIn

64% Youtube

14% Instagram

11% Pinterest

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

It is worth bearing in mind that this is a rapidly evolving area and so popular platforms may change over time. To start with, we would recommend selecting a couple of the platforms most widely used in your community at the moment. Here are some tips on how to use them.

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Use social media to establish the culture - the immediacy of social media can help alumni to feel connected to the institution. On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram you can post pictures, and YouTube can be used for live videos and testimonials. Facebook also has the option to conduct polls, an effective way to start conversations and collect feedback.

Case study The University of Edinburgh in the U.K. do live postings from alumni events and graduations on Twitter, so that alumni can feel connected, wherever they are in the world.

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Enhance existing communities - Facebook can be a fantastic way of grouping people together and prompting conversations. Encourage alumni ambassadors from each year group to be responsible for setting up a group and prompting conversations online for that specific class.

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Use the communication functionality - social media can be an effective tool for engaging alumni on an individual or collective basis. You can both create messages or invitations to the whole group, or engage in one to one conversations through the messenger function, which can help maintain the personal touch.

Case study St George’s School in Kenya use WhatsApp extensively. Each year group has a class representative who sets up a thread and prompts conversations to build engagement as well as using it as a tool to invite alumni to school-based events.

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Share the load - make sure different people are posting content and split the responsibility between staff and alumni. Tools are available to allow you to share messages for a select group of well-connected alumni to promote through their personal accounts (Social Toaster, for example, is one such tool).

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Avoid using as a ‘serious ask’ for funds - whilst social media can certainly help with engagement for fundraising, it’s not recommended that you solicit donations using this method.

Case study Ryerson University in Canada are experts on social media - “Our three main channels are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Facebook is more for older alumni and more social than professional. It’s a good place to raise the profile of things that are for their benefit. We also share stories about how alumni are giving back. On LinkedIn, we refrain from promoting our benefits, services and events too much. If we do want to share information about these types of things, we’ll frame up a related discussion or question. Our goals with social media overall are to keep the connection alive and try and remain relevant in their day to day lives.”

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Data Successful delivery of your communications strategy will rest on a reliable and robust data management system; it is difficult to send a newsletter to alumni without an email address, a place to store it and a way to keep it up to date, for example. We would highly recommend setting up a system as a key priority from the outset, since it can become difficult and cumbersome to manage the network effectively without it. There are three things to consider with alumni data 1. where to store data 2. which details to collect and 3. how to keep this information current.

There are several options available to manage alumni networks, ranging from online network and social media services that have no additional cost to inexpensive tools like Microsoft Excel and Google forms, to more expensive bespoke software.

Table 2: Benefits and Drawbacks of Data Management Systems and Software. Benefits

Drawback

Social media: Linkedin / Facebook

• • • • •

• Difficult to segment alumni for specific purpose. • Difficult to search. • Cannot record activities. • Cannot record how alumni would like to support you.

Microsoft Excel

• • • •

Inexpensive. Easy to use. Can filter easily. Can record engagement and how alumni would like to support you. • Can communicate through mail merging.

• Would need to update details manually. • Need to input data manually initially. • No in-built communications or events tools.

Google Forms

• Inexpensive. • Easy to input data - can integrate with website so link can be shared. • Can filter easily. • Can record engagement and how alumni would like to support you. • Can communicate through mail merging.

• Would need to update details manually. • No in-built communications or events tools.

Bespoke Software

• • • •

• Can be expensive. • Requires training to use.

Basic tools are free. Widely used. Easy to publicise. Alumni keep details current. In-built communication and events tools.

Easy to search and segment by groups. Easy to record complex data. Very effective with large networks. Can track relationships between alumni and institution.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

We would advise schools with minimal resources to opt for a two-fold approach: integrate Google forms into the school website to allow for collection of email addresses for a centralised database, and create both Facebook and LinkedIn pages. This allows alumni to be connected and communicate in a way that suits them. We would recommend having multiple methods to communicate with alumni where possible, such as email address and social media links, so that if one becomes outdated you can still get in touch.

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Decide which data to collect – this will vary between upcoming leavers and those who left longer ago. As a minimum we advise collecting full name, (including maiden name if appropriate), e-mail address, leaving year and current occupation.

Data Inteviewees Collect from Alumni Email Address Phone Number Postal Address Social Media Details Leaving Year Current Occupation Job History Support Offered Historic Support Interests

98% 65% 60% 25% 78% 73% 60% 20% 35% 18%

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Identify a time to collect leaver data for current students - it’s more effective and less time-consuming to collect data from current students before they leave. It is important to set aside time to do this. This could be done through tutors, in an assembly or integrated as part of a leaving event. You could also identify a group of students from that year group to help sign up their peers.

Case study The Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, India, have a celebration tea for students when they are about to leave, and they are signed up as part of the alumni network at the same time. This is a final opportunity for them together as students, and to meet the members of the association.

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Consider data protection – we would strongly advise referring to local legislation requirements surrounding data collection and data storage. Depending on this, you may need to set out how alumni data will be used and stored, which alumni will need to agree to beforehand.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Maintaining data Keeping the data current once it has been collected was cited as one of the greatest challenges for even the most established alumni associations. 76% of alumni experts we consulted used at least two different approaches for ensuring their data is current. We suggest identifying at least three of the following methods to ensure details are as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

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Send out surveys - whilst these won’t necessarily let you know if email addresses change, they can be a great way of keeping other details current, such as existing occupation, location and interests.

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Encourage alumni to self-identify when details change – with an integrated form on the school website alumni can update their details if they change. This doesn’t require a current email address in the same way the survey does.

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Mention importance of data in communications – particularly in emails or on social media. This can help to ensure alumni are aware of the importance of keeping their details up to date.

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Set some monthly or annual goals - try and contact a set number of alumni each month to verify contact details, and follow-up on any returned e-mails.

Case study Christ Church Grammar School in Australia analyse email bounce backs; they list the mail failures from every communication and aim to contact them before the next mailing goes out. This equates to roughly 60-80 every couple of months. They try and phone them, write to them or contact their friends.

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Case study

Split the responsibility - ensure that all staff engaged with alumni relations know that is part of their role to ensure details are kept up to date, and edit records that change. If you have an alumni representative or volunteer from each year group, they can be instrumental in keeping tabs on their peers too.

RY Institute in Nepal encourage alumni to update their details at the bottom of every newsletter that goes out, as well as regularly posting the link on Facebook for alumni to self-identify.

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Make use of face-to-face contact - if alumni visit the school, make a habit of checking that their information is current. You could have a stall at school events like parents’ evenings, plays and any reunions, to update details and recruit new alumni.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

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Demonstrate value - alumni will want to stay in touch and update their details, if they see the benefit of doing so. We will discuss this further in the fourth section.

Give alumni lifelong email addresses - this is a way to ensure you always have a method of communicating with alumni, although it does still require them to check this email regularly, or to provide a forwarding email to their everyday account.

The database and integrity of the information are some of the most important things in alumni relations. Senior Alumni Relations Officer, University of Witwatersrand

Utilise data cleaning services – there are companies that can verify the accuracy of your data. These are popular with both schools and universities, but they can be expensive.

Social media – setting up a LinkedIn page and connecting to alumni will allow you to monitor any updates for individuals as they change their profiles, as well as headline summaries across the whole network around location and profession. There is no ‘one-size fits all’ answer for data maintenance, which means you are able to select the solutions that work best for you in your context, since different alumni will respond to different methods. We would recommend trying as many as possible and ensuring that within the school, updating and editing is prioritised as an ongoing process.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Time and talent This section will discuss some of the ways that you can benefit from the support of alumni, and how to put these ideas into practice. Whilst alumni support has long been associated with fundraising, it is often their time and expertise that can add the most value, especially in the early years. We will go through some different ways in which alumni can volunteer either in school, or from a distance, as well as the steps to start to fundraise if that is part of your strategy. Whilst fundraising takes longer to put in place, careers talks and mentoring are opportunities you can create as soon as you have established the relationship, depending on the time alumni are able to commit.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Mentoring Mentoring can be a rewarding way for alumni to support their former school, and can be extremely beneficial for students too. Mentoring can either take place in person, or online. 56% of institutions interviewed utilised alumni as mentors in some capacity, and 40% considered it an institutional priority. Mentoring can be time intensive and there are a number of potential pitfalls to avoid. We suggest considering the following for establishing a mentorship programme.

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Decide on a format – mentoring can be a formalised scheme, or a less formal opportunity for alumni to share advice. Informal mentoring is more ad hoc, and may just last for a couple of meetings or messages. A formal scheme will require more time to set up, need a robust matching process and last for a set period of time with specific goals. Informal mentoring much easier to set up, but the relationships are generally shorter and less focused. Often one type of mentoring may feed into another and you could also consider small group mentoring if there are a limited number of volunteers and a large number of students who would benefit.

Case study At the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, mentoring happens in an informal way. The careers advisor has access to recent alumni data and so when she knows of a student wanting to apply to a competitive university or to seek employment in a specific sector, she will pair the student with the alumni and they can email each other or set up a Skype conversation.

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Set objectives and expectations - we would suggest attaching some measurable goals for the mentor and mentee to focus on, so that both student and mentor are aware of measures of success and can work towards them together. Objectives may involve specific support, such as assisting one or more students with a university application, or revision tips for an exam, or it could be more generalised support, such as increasing their confidence and communication skills.

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Establish timings and objectives in advance. The mentee should come to these meetings prepared. The Brightside Trust, online mentoring experts in the U.K. recommend an optimum mentoring period of between 6 weeks and 6 months, beyond which it becomes difficult to maintain the momentum.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

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Case study

Carefully consider matching and training - where mentoring has been successful, schools and universities often attribute this to effective training and matching. Understanding your alumni before matching them with a mentee is very important. If an alumnus is not a suitable match, there may be alternative ways they can support.

Future First U.K. supported St James School in the U.K. to run an online mentoring programme for a group of students from low income families before they sat their first public exams. The programme helped support students in the decision-making processes in relation to progression after finishing school. All interaction took place via a secure platform and this allowed the school to monitor what was being discussed, as well as allowing mentors the freedom to get in touch at a time that suited them.

Benefits

Drawback

In person mentoring

• Mentor and mentee can build strong relationship. • They can look at things together – e.g., a university application or an essay. • Can be an easier forum for mentor to deliver feedback.

• Requires mentor to live or work nearby to the school. • Might require supervision from school if there are any child protection restrictions. • Might be difficult for the mentor to undertake during the school day.

Online Mentoring

• More flexible: mentors can set meetings whenever and from wherever it suits them. • There are plenty of free resources to enable mentoring online: Skype and email are two key ones. • For young people who are more confident communicating online, it may mean that they are more likely to be open with mentors.

• Not all students have access to the internet. • Might require some prior precautions depending on child protection laws. • For some it can be harder to build the relationship without meeting face to face. • Can be more difficult for staff to monitor.

The matching is absolutely critical with mentoring, and it also requires careful ongoing management. We learnt that the most successful are around career matching and getting the students job-ready….We ensured there was an initial meet up and a half-way point event with a guest speaker to interest alumni. Many students who were mentored had a good experience would then become mentors themselves. (Deputy Director of Alumni Relations, University of Auckland)

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Careers In addition to mentoring, there are many shorter time commitments alumni can make to support students to successfully transition from school to the workplace. Here are our suggestions.

01/ Careers talks. According to alumni experts, the most common way to involve alumni in students’ lives is to speak about their own careers. 78% institutions we spoke with had involved their alumni in this way. Here are our suggestions for this type of engagement. 1. Guest lecturers or assemblies: you could invite alumni to talk about their careers and life after leaving school at a guest lecture, or during an assembly. 2. Workshops: you could invite alumni to talk to a smaller, more targeted group of students. For example, an entrepreneur to talk to students who might be interested in working in business, or starting their own. You could also broaden this to a specific sector and invite in a range of alumni in that field to talk as part of a panel discussion. 3. Careers fair: enables students to talk meet different alumni and to ask questions about their jobs. This can be an effective way to give students to get an overview of a range of different jobs in a short amount of time.

Based on experience in the U.K. , we would recommend taking the following steps to ensure a successful session. • Have a facilitator – they can unpick any sector specific language alumni might use, and make it relevant for the students. • Identify objectives and share with alumni – this will keep the session on track and is more useful for the students. • Brief the alumni – it might be some time since they were in school themselves and so itis useful to remind them what stage the students are at so that their advice is age appropriate. • Keep things moving – make sure that no one is speaking for too long. A panel forum can be particularly effective to make sure the conversation flows. • Make it interactive – students tend to take more in when they have the chance to chat with alumni directly, to ask questions, or undertake an activity together. If it’s a larger group, then interactive exercises can keep the energy levels high.

Case study Graded School in Brazil ran a series of panel sessions, each with four or five alumni, across all the major employment sectors. The sessions each covered two areas, such as medicine and media, to appeal to a larger number of students and help them to see differences and cross-overs between sectors. Students now have a better understanding of the local labour market, as well as some different roles available and how to get them.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

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Work experience and internships.

Skills Development.

Whether it’s an obligatory part of the curriculum or not, alumni in work can provide opportunities for former students to learn more about their jobs and the world of work.

As well as imparting knowledge about their careers and the different employment sectors, alumni may be helpful in assisting with skills development and ‘job-readiness’ with current students – specifically focusing on what is required in effective leadership, networking, communications skills and financial literacy, for example.

This can be an ongoing structured programme (such as students spending a few hours a week in the workplace of alumni), it could be a week-long placement during the school holidays, or it could be a tour around the offices and day shadowing. This not only gives students the chance to see what the workplace looks like, but also the different roles within an organisation and the variety of skills that might be required to work there.

Case study Ivanhoe Grammar School in Australia have created a Life Matters & Wellbeing Program, whereby alumni aged 20-40 returned to both campuses of the School to speak with year 12 students on a range of related topics including: financial literacy, School to university transitions, resilience building, stress management and the various arms of wellbeing. Students generally find ‘younger’ alumni more relatable and they have found it’s important to have a range of personalities working in various industries and roles to ensure alumni connect with students and to highlight the broad horizons of possibilities.

I’ve taken over 20 students on work experience in my business, helping them to appreciate the creative marketing industry and if it’s the right fit for them. I assign them a mock client and take them through the complete process we do with real clients, situating them in each department, with my team assisting them to learn, grow and push beyond their own limitations. (Former student, Bridgetown High School)

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Advocacy As one university mentioned: “every alumnus affects our reputation; it’s important that they are informed and engaged after they leave for when they talk about us in their communities”. Utilising alumni to informally or formally advocate for the institution can be an effective way of harnessing the alumni voice. 71% of institutions interviewed for this study benefited in some way from public support from alumni, whether that be profiles of alumni on the school website, or on a larger scale with alumni speaking publicly about the school and how it supported them to transition into careers.

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Case studies and profiles of alumni in jobs these can be an easy way of showcasing alumni progression after school and boost morale amongst students as they recognise their own potential. They can be publicised in newsletters, marketing materials, the school website, social media and on display boards around school. This allows alumni who are not close by to be involved too. We would recommend having short and snappy questions for visual displays and to save longer text testimonials and stories for newsletters and the website.

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Student and parent recruitment - alumni could also support in the recruitment of new students, or encouraging students to stay in school. Alumni can attend open days and parents’ evenings to speak with new students and parents about what it’s like to study at your school, and how it prepared them for what came next.

Case study Camfed are an NGO that support vulnerable girls to attend school when they might otherwise not have had the opportunity, or seen the value of doing so, in remote communities across five countries in Africa. In the past year, alumni of Camfed (also known as CAMA) in Zimbabwe have supported 154,000 girls to stay in education and might otherwise have struggled to do as a result of social and financial pressures. As alumni of those communities, the women were able to understand the pressures these girls were facing, and consequently put together a programme of support to encourage them to return to education.

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Advocate for the institution – the collective voice of a group of alumni can be a powerful one within wider society. As your biggest constituent part, alumni can collectively be a powerful political voice for the institution, advocating for key issues and raising the profile of the school with local government.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Running the network Often due to overstretched capacity, 76% of the institutions we spoke with asked alumni themselves to volunteer with running the network. Alumni are often well placed to understand the expectations of network members, and to know what alumni would be interested in. In addition to supporting with keeping details up to date and getting back in touch with alumni, here are three ways that alumni can support.

01 02 03

They can run a local ‘chapter’ - if a large number of your alumni have moved away they might want to engage with each other locally. You could nominate someone in each hub to be a chapter leader and organise events, so that they continue to be engaged in spite of their physical distance from the school. They can organise networking events and also feed back to the school what alumni are doing and how else they might like to help.

They can lend their expertise for communications communications can be really time consuming to put together, so you could involve keen writers amongst your alumni to write articles and features about the network.

Reunions and events - alumni are well placed (and sometimes keen) to source locations, send invitations and host events on the night.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

More ways to mobilise alumni In addition, every institution interviewed for this study had additional exciting ways they involved alumni in school life which was specific to their context and the particular challenges, they faced.

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Alumni help to co-teach lessons - if alumni can demonstrate how they use theory from their school subjects in their jobs, it can help bring subjects alive for some students. If class sizes are large then alumni can assist the teacher by providing additional class supervision and support. For this to be effective it is crucial to invest in the planning; alumni must familiarise themselves with the lesson objectives and understand how to integrate their practical knowledge into the curriculum, in a way that supports the teacher.

Case study Green Acres School in the U.S. invited a structural engineer to work with students who were designing some equipment for the playground to help them test and improve their designs.

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Sports coaching and extracurricular activities alumni may be in a position to help run extracurricular activities, especially those they participated in when they were in school. In return for their involvement, the school could offer alumni a reference for volunteering, so their commitment is formally recognised.

Case study Christ Church Grammar School in Western Australia have 60 of their alumni as active sports coaches in school. They have a rule that sports staff should always approach previous players in their teams before looking to appoint externally.

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Academic tutoring - similarly to mentoring, some schools and universities asked their alumni to get involved as academic tutors with current students. It is recommended that you identify individuals who you know would be comfortable with this role, and ensure they are briefed before they work with students.

Case study Karlstad University in Sweden ask former students working in the technology sector to support IT students with their dissertations topics. They also offer them work placements, whereby they can see how their academic work is applied outside school.

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Institutional governance Many institutions are starting to look to their alumni as potential committee members to sit on their boards of governors, or become trustees. As former students they have a unique perspective that can be invaluable when helping to direct the organisation’s future. In Ghana it is a legal requirement to have two alumni on the governing body, which has been seen to increase the effectiveness of the group

Case study African Leadership Academy in South Africa selected one of their alumni from the first graduating classes, voted in by other alumni, to sit on the organisation’s board of trustees. Her feedback has been hugely valuable as she is able to identify with the experience of studying in this environment, as well as relate to the experiences of current students.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Fundraising Asking alumni for financial contributions is the reason given why many institutions keep in touch with their alumni. 76% of interviewees fundraise from their alumni, and 63% consider it a top priority. However, before fundraising can play a substantial role, relationships need to be developed and a culture of philanthropy established. This section will explore ideas that help create the environment for fundraising and suggest some starting points.

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Is your school ready? – Before spending the resources fundraising from alumni, it’s important to consider whether you’re ready to. You must have systems in place both to receive donations and thank alumni, before you start asking. You must also have a clear idea what you’re going to be asking for, and why.

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Decide when to start asking recent alumni – we would recommend that you start fundraising immediately after students leave and get in touch to ask within six months of them leaving. Contrary to most assumptions, schools that ask alumni to donate format the point they leave, enjoyed a much higher long-term giving rate than those who waited until they thought alumni might be more financially comfortable.

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Cultivate a habit of philanthropy with current students - research shows that if alumni donate for four consecutive years, they are likely to be a lifelong donor. Start by asking for a small gift of a couple of dollars from each current student. The donations will be collected to buy something the class will benefit from whilst they are still there. The chances of then soliciting larger gifts later on is much greater.

Case study The University of Puerto Rico asks all leaving students to make a small financial donation reflecting the year in which they leave (so, for example in 2016 either $2.16 or $20.16). They are then allowed to vote for what they would like to put that money towards, further empowering them as donors.

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Wait some time before fundraising if reestablishing contact - if you are re-establishing contact with alumni who left some years ago, asking for a financial contribution should not be the first ask. It is important to build the relationship and demonstrate the organisation is a worthy cause and trusted recipient of funds first. Schools recommend a period of two years to re-establish relationships before asking for financial donations.

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Demonstrate need – it is important for alumni to understand why you are fundraising, what the funds will be used for and the impact it will have on the lives of future students. Fundraising requires a story which shows impact. For example, you would not just be donating to buy books, but opening a world of learning up to countless generations, enhancing students’ future prospects, increasing literacy and enhancing the reputation of your school.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

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Find out what alumni would like to donate to you could send a survey out to alumni to ascertain both whether they would consider donating to the school, and if they would, what projects they would be interested in. You can then build your campaigns in response. Some schools have different fundraising pillars (such as one for student welfare and one for capital projects) so that donors have a choice.

Fundraise for specific things - The funding need will vary from school to school, but interviewees suggested that by far the most popular cause is student welfare (whether that be funding for trips and extracurricular activities or support with resources like uniform and books for students most in need.)

Make friend-raising a priority - this is absolutely essential for successful fundraising. Take advantage of opportunities to make personal contact at events, and be as personable as possible in communications. It is also important not to rush. Potential donors might take time to consider giving a gift. It may be months or even years before a gift or donation is made, after being initially approached.

Utilise your data - good data about what alumni are doing will allow you to get to know your alumni and establish relationships with them before asking for funds. For example, alumni who play in sports teams might be more likely to donate money for sports equipment. Alumni will be more likely to relate to the cause if you can relate to them.

We’ve definitely had to cultivate relationships before asking for donations, sometimes people are a bit apprehensive and want to see whether the association would work out before supporting. (Treasurer, St George’s Alumni Association)

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

How to ask Once the context is set for fundraising and relationships have been developed, there are a number of ways you can make the ask. Most schools surveyed used multiple methods for asking. These are listed below. For a school looking to fundraise or the first time we would recommend identifying a small group of individuals who might be able to donate larger gifts, and cultivating those relationships on a one-to-one

basis. For the remaining group we would advise building the case with emails, a social media presence and events, and offering a number of projects and methods to donate to so it is as easy and appealing as possible.

Methods used for fundraising Telephone campaigns

38% Social media campaigns

29% Letters or emails

96% Fundraising events

29% Targeting individuals

71% General marketing

58%

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Letter or email This is the most popular way to generate support for specific causes, since it offers the opportunity to map out the need and the way in which donations will be used.

Social media campaign Social media is a great way to supplement wider campaigns, but should not be the only way that you reach out to alumni. For example, the Central European University in Hungary utilised social media to promote their ‘day of philanthropy’ when they encouraged students and alumni to make a small donation towards a specific project.

Telethons Some schools found that calling alumni up can be an effective method of securing regular direct debits from them, and also provides an opportunity to check that their contact details are up-to-date. This method can be time-intensive for one person, and so we would advise identifying a group of alumni or student volunteers to help.

Events Although events can be time and cost intensive, existing events in the school calendar could provide opportunities for fundraising and also for raising awareness of campaigns or for raising small amounts of money. Bridgetown High School Alumni Association in Western Australia host a darts competition at the local agricultural show, which is always both well attended and supported.

Targeting individuals You may start by looking through your data to see what jobs alumni are in and who might be a position of financial security and approach them to ask whether they would be interested in donating.

General marketing Promoting fundraising on the website helps to raise awareness for alumni or other members of the school community to make donations when they want or are able to.

Case study Groton School in the U.S. utilise their alumni point person from each year group to make the asks. Groton has found this to be the most successful solicitation method, and 53% of their alumni are financial supporters of the school.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Thanking alumni Building the relationship to the point of asking for donations is only the first part of the process of alumni engagement. Of equal importance is how you continue to engage with alumni after they have made a donation. It is crucial to consider how you will recognise the donations and steward the relationship, so that these alumni are encouraged and motivated to continue their support. Creating a strategy before you start fundraising is recommended so you can thank each former student appropriately. Some key steps to consider are as follows.

01 02 03 04

Send personal ‘thank you’ messages - you could ask current students to write letters to donors after they have made a gift, or send a personalised thank you email.

Invite donors to special events - you could invite donors to drinks receptions, quiz nights, a tour of the school, end-of-year assemblies and prize-giving celebration ceremonies, or set up a lunch with some of their former teachers. Thank alumni publically - if formal and public recognition is appropriate, donors can be thanked at events and in newsletters.

Consider naming rights for major donors - naming a plaque on a building or bench in recognition of the donor, specifically for larger amounts of money, might be a nice gesture, and leaves a legacy for that donor.

Something we do with our younger graduates is to have a little fun with giving. We have challenges, we have a set period of time when we ask them to make a gift and have an inter-class competition, or compete against another local school. (Leadership Gift Officer, Groton School)

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

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Keep enga time Until now we’ve largely focused on how alumni can support you, but this engagement will be short-lived if alumni do not recognise what’s in it for them too. This section looks at how you can ensure your volunteers are well looked after, and some of the benefits they can enjoy as a result of keeping in touch. From the outset it’s useful to track which alumni respond to different communications and invitations, to notice any general trends that might feed into your alumni strategy going forward. Interviewees noticed that engagement peaked both in the five years immediately after students graduate, and then again much later when they are settled in careers and become nostalgic. 48% institutions found their alumni were most engaged at least 20 years after they had left, as long as they have remained connected throughout this time. Although alumni between the ages of 25 and 40 are the most targeted group to support students in relation to their career progression they are considered the most difficult group to engage across all continents.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Volunteer management The previous section explored a number of ways alumni could be acknowledged and recognised for donating money. These suggestions apply equally to those who volunteer their time too. However, with volunteers, the interaction can be very personal and so it is important to ensure they are happy and well supported. Cornell University continues to enjoy the support of their alumni for decades after they graduate. They put this down to ensuring that they are offering meaningful opportunities for engaging alumni. Here are our suggestions for effective volunteer engagement.

01 02 03 04

Make sure your ‘asks’ are appropriate - potential volunteers can become despondent if the opportunities offered to them are not relevant to them. For example, if someone is living and working several hours away, they may not be able to come in to give a careers talk. Tailoring the asks to the appropriate audiences often yields positive results and sustained engagement. Give plenty of notice - the more alumni become involved, the more they will want to stay involved. However, many alumni will be busy and unable to support without ample notice. Six to eight weeks is the recommended lead time to send an invitation for an event to allow alumni plenty of opportunity to make arrangements. It can be effective to build a calendar of opportunities for the year, so that alumni can plan in advance. Highlight the benefits of volunteering - volunteering can help alumni to develop skills such as public speaking, leadership, communications, as well as working with young people. If alumni are long-term volunteers then perhaps the school could write them a reference, or encourage them to include the experience on their CV. Offer ongoing opportunities or leadership positions - alumni like to feel challenged and also rewarded by their volunteering experiences. Once one project is completed their support and input could be recognised by offering them a more advanced level of responsibility. For example, if they have been an outstanding mentor, they could be asked whether they would be interested in helping to support other mentors or deliver training sessions.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Segmenting Alumni It is important to recognise the diversity of alumni within your network. Here, we offer some suggestions for some effective ways of segmenting the alumni community, to better cater to their needs and interests, and ways you might want to manage this.

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Age - younger alumni can offer a different type of support to those who are established in their careers, or even retired. Students may relate to them better, as they are able to talk about the immediate transitions after finishing school, and what it’s like to start university or get their first job. Some schools and universities have put together a specific young alumni programme to ensure this group stay engaged from day one.

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Location - if a large number of alumni have moved to another part of the country or overseas, it can be a little more difficult to engage and involve them in person. This group can sometimes be more mobile and change their contact details, which is why it’s even more important to give them a reason to stay involved. There are two ways you might consider: • offer alumni opportunities to get involved without having to be there in person - this is increasingly possible with the Internet. Profiles, online mentoring and Skype talks are all ways to involve this particular group.

Case study Future First U.K. worked with Clevedon School to help organise a Skype talk between a former student working for the government in Canada and a geography class, where she otherwise would not have been able to share her experiences and advice.

• If a sizeable group of alumni relocate to a certain city or country then you might want to consider setting up local hubs or groups so they can support each other and stay connected to the school.

Case study St Peter’s High School in Ghana have several alumni in the U.K. and US. They encourage alumni in these countries to elect a national leader who will be responsible for organising networking events and sending communications to ensure they are kept updated with what’s going on at the school and the central network in Accra.

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Interests - it can be difficult to differentiate the interests of alumni in a systematic way if this is not something that you capture in your database. However, filtering by professions or subjects studied at university can help determine what alumni might be interested in hearing about.

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Historic support - it is crucial to maintain records of how alumni have supported you in the past, so that you can ask engaged alumni to support you in a similar way again. We advise against messaging alumni who have helped before as if for the first time, or they might feel undervalued.

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Social events Social events can be a reason alumni stay engaged. One of the big preconceptions about alumni networks is that they are all about reunions. Whilst alumni networks are certainly not all about them, reunions or other social events are important and help foster community and maintain relationships. 89% of the schools and universities we spoke with had a reunion programme. This section will examine the different types of social gatherings and how to keep them simple and cost effective. The two different types of social gatherings that have been most popular are: Interest groups - these can revolve around sports, arts or particular employment sectors. Alumni vs staff or student sports matches can be popular and potential fundraisers too. Reunions - in some cases these were school and university led, and sometimes alumni-led. Five years after students leave was considered the optimum time for a first reunion, and the most popular are major milestones, such as 25 and 50 years out.

Case study Kapsabet Boys School in Kenya organise reunions by class. Location is dictated by where the majority for a particular year group are. They are all organised through WhatsApp in collaboration with a class leader and wider alumni association.

If you’re looking to run a reunion for the first time, these are our suggested steps:

01 02 03 04 05

Choose the right time – our research suggests there are better times of the year to organize reunions: at the beginning of the academic year (this is when alumni will be nostalgic) and around big holidays or festivals, when alumni tend to gather around family and friends, where they grew up. Find a connected administrator - organising a reunion requires time and dedication. It is important to get alumni involved in the organization of the event and share the tasks. What’s more, alumni will be more likely to attend events they’ve been invited to by someone they know. Decide who is invited - there are two models for reunions: smaller class reunions, or general reunions. Smaller class reunions can be more effectively organised by alumni in that specific year group, whereas larger, general reunions might take place on the school site and require more input from the school, both financially and organisationally. Find a focus - many schools recommend having a reason for coming together to supplement the social nature of the evening. This could be a tour round new facilities, a guest speaker or a panel discussion, so that alumni feel it is more than just meeting up with their friends. Find a venue - this could be on campus, or in another local venue, depending on the size of the group. To keep costs down, alumni can pay for their own refreshments, either as part of a ticket for a big event on campus, or in a cafe or restaurant, if a smaller reunion.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Alumni to alumni support In addition to supporting current students and the event, alumni can also benefit from sharing career insights and as a potential source of business relationships. The benefit of having a professional network to tap into may encourage alumni to stay in touch. Here are our suggestions about how to go about this.

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Start a LinkedIn page - LinkedIn is the most used online tool for professional networking globally. If you don’t already have an account for your school or institution, we suggest creating a group that alumni can join and interact with each other.

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Mentoring programmes for younger alumni - alumni who are either at university or looking for their first job are sometimes more responsive and open to mentoring relationships than younger students still at school. Once they have left school, there are often fewer restrictions in relation to their data and less need to monitor the communication. It is best to let this initiative be alumni driven so it’s not too time intensive on the school’s part. However, you could collect a list of more experienced alumni willing to mentor so you can point the younger alumni in the right direction. This is also a way to keep younger alumni engaged over the years when they might not be as involved.

Case study One of the alumni of Bridgetown High School in Australia has found business through the alumni network and is now designing multiple websites for someone who was not in the same year group as him and who he would not otherwise have met if it wasn’t for the alumni network.

Case study Punahou School in Hawaii have just started an entrepreneurship programme for young alumni interested in starting their own businesses, but don’t know where to begin. They have facilitated a session with older alumni who already have real world business experience. Having a specific focus can help to make the programme even more successful and directed. They say they spend time on recent graduates as well as current students because “if we can keep in touch for the first 5-10 years the chances of them staying engaged is much higher than losing touch and reengaging later on. We want them to value the relationship and network we offer.” (Director of Alumni Relations – Punahou School)

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Professional networking events - these can be valuable to alumni looking to build contacts in a certain field or location, or to those who would like to make a career move and build their knowledge of different roles and sectors. Larger social events may provide an opportunity for networking and when professional networking is the focus, it is recommended that the events are specific and have a focal point, such as a guest speaker. It is best that these are alumni-led so they can organise events they are interested in, but the school can play a role in helping to advertise them to the wider network.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

How to fund and structure the network Two of the largest concerns about alumni engagement are how much time it will take, and how much it will cost. Based on evidence from the research there are a number of options about how to structure and fund the network, to ensure it is both as effective and as manageable as possible.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

There are several ways to organise the workload, the most effective of which is to identify both someone in school with the responsibility to ensure institutional buy-in, and a group of alumni volunteers to drive it forward. Case study Robert Clack School in the U.K. have identified a professional, non-teaching member of staff. The alumni network is entirely her responsibility in school and makes up around two days per week of her role. The school also have a committee of made up of four alumni from different year groups as well as the Headteacher. The committee meet quarterly and in addition to these meetings have a specialism, for example, communications or finance, to support the member of staff in school.

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Handle it in school - it could be an additional part of an existing staff member’s role. If this is the case, it is suggested that this is recognised formally in either their job title, pay grade and/or job description to ensure that the duty is not neglected. School staff will have a clear understanding of how the school and students could benefit from alumni engagement, and consequently can ensure alumni support is aligned with the wider school aims.

Case study Alternative ways to structure the workload are:

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Set up an alumni association - you could establish an alumni association as an entity separate from the school. This has been initiated by alumni themselves, in most cases. This will enable you to have an elected board dedicated entirely to alumni engagement, and also accept and manage finances separately from the school budget. This option requires considerable commitment from a group of alumni, willing to sit on the board and dedicate time to the associated administrative duties.

Case study The Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai established an alumni association over 30 years ago. They have an elected president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, as well as several committee members. They work closely with the Principal at the school to ensure that their efforts and activities align with the aims of the school and support it where needed.

In Juan de Lanuza School in Spain the responsibility for alumni lies with one of the science teachers. As a former student himself, he is both well placed to connect with alumni and to understand them.

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Hire a member of staff - whilst this is arguably the most effective option, it is also the most expensive. We probably wouldn’t recommend hiring a specific member of staff straight away, but if the engagement builds and fundraising takes off, then this is a recommended option.

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Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

We hope that the guide offers a number of ways that you can engage with your alumni, in a costeffective way. However, there may still be some need for resources. Funding can come from a number of sources.

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Paid membership – in all the schools we have spoken with, this can be set out in the following ways: • All alumni pay an annual fee to join the association as a member, with the additional option of purchasing a life membership (although, life membership options are not always recommended for generating revenue in the long-term). The benefit is that you have a guaranteed source of income for the association’s activities. The downside is that a compulsory membership fee might prevent some alumni from joining the association. • Have multiple tiers of membership - similar to the above model, some schools offer paid or free membership. Members who pay have additional benefits such as invitations to events and the opportunity to meet with the Head.

Case study St George’s School in Kenya ask for a one off membership fee of $35 from all alumni who want to be members of the association. However, for those under 21 who aren’t able to pay this, they offer a work in lieu scheme so younger alumni can gain skills and support the association in this way.

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Fundraising and donations - Once you have an established network and the alumni are willing to donate money, or fundraise on your behalf, then the network can become self-sustainable and fund itself. However, you might have to wait some time before this is the case. -Please see the chapter on fundraising to find out more about this.

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School fund - in the early days of getting in touch with alumni, we would recommend you do not ask for money immediately at the risk of putting off alumni. As mentioned earlier, we have suggested low-cost solutions to each of the main steps and challenges in relation to alumni engagement. Should you require small sums for resources, perhaps the school could fund these. Ideally, the investment in alumni engagement will more than cover its costs in the long term, although how long this takes will depend on your specific context and the amount you’re able to invest to start with. Some schools have found that it covers its own costs within a year or two, if the network is largely volunteer run, but those who have invested in staff time find it takes five to ten years to provide a positive return on investment.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Case studies

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St George’s Primary School – Kenya St George’s is a primary school situated in Nairobi, Kenya. The alumni set up an alumni association after an informal reunion lunch invited a number of former students to the school for a visit. The network was registered 18 months ago and now has 260 alumni paying for membership, in addition to a further 250 the association is in contact with via email, and over 1,000 on the Facebook group. The alumni attribute the wide-scale support to word of mouth and an effective online presence through the website and social media. For younger alumni unable to pay the $35 membership fee there is a work-inlieu alternative, which allows them to volunteer to support with administration and events in lieu of payment. The association is made up of alumni volunteers, as well as a nominated representative from each year group, who organises alumni from their respective class. The association communicates formally via email with a newsletter every two months, as well as Facebook and WhatsApp updates in between these times. The association have found WhatsApp to be a particularly effective method of communication for gathering momentum and support for fundraising initiatives. The association holds regular meetings both with the class ambassadors and the Headteacher to ensure support is prioritised in accordance with school values, and then integrated across the respective class groups. In the 18 months the association have set up 15 extra-curricular clubs, which the junior alumni help to facilitate and receive a reference upon completing the programme. They have also begun their fundraising strategy, and have so far raised over $40,000 from donations and membership fees. Funds have gone towards a set of three new classrooms with new facilities, for which they also harnessed the skills of alumni who are now architects, surveyors and designers. These new classrooms have not only had a positive impact on the aesthetics of the school, but on student behaviour too and students much better grades in public exams this year which has been partly attributed to the improved learning environments.

alumni are a very powerful entity... the fearless group. The association is now looking at how to fundraise in a more sustainable way; whilst 50% of those who are part of the network have given a one off donation, they would now like to see how they can make sure this is continuous and long term. For this reason, they have been mindful of not over-asking, so as to continue fostering the goodwill of alumni, and use each former for their expertise and not waste their support. They are now looking to see how they can involve the wider networks of alumni, and whether their friends, colleagues and family would also be interested in donating time or money. One of the key things to making sure the model is sustainable is “to make sure the fun stuff happens” - it’s important for the class ambassadors to organise social lunches and drinks so that the engagement is maintained over time.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

St Peter’s Senior Secondary School - Ghana St Peter’s Boys Senior Secondary School is a state school in Accra, Ghana. Whilst the school registered an alumni association many years ago, it had lost momentum. Last year a new President was elected to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to alumni engagement and the association is now thriving has seen huge success. The school set up the Facebook group ‘I am Perscoba’ to support the alumni and offer a central platform for alumni to communicate with each other. Within two weeks of setting it up over 5,000 alumni had joined the group and were enthusiastic supporters. The network is now organised both into year groups, and also includes two overseas national chapters in U.K. and U.S. where there are more than 500 alumni members in each location. The purpose of the group is two-fold - for alumni to support: each other in their respective regions with their careers; and school projects.

if I travel to another part of the world, the first people I will call on are alumni ... that’s the benefit of the network ... they are the natural alliances ... there is a bond of brotherhood. The school has found that organising according to year groups has yielded much more support and success. Year groups and international groups are responsible for organising social events, such as barbecues and drinks evenings for alumni to network with each other. The President has introduced himself at events for nearly all year groups to ensure they are aware of their obligations, and how they can access support. Having such a wide social network and a global strategy enables St Peter’s alumni to connect with each other across the world.

Alumni are communicated with regularly, both through the website and Facebook page and the plan for next year is for the President to publish a quarterly newsletter. The individual year groups keep in contact regularly and have both individual Facebook pages and Whatsapp threads for communicating. As well as being responsible for organising their own social events, each group also has an annual project. These are launched at the Homecoming reunion event each December. Each group announces how they intend to financially support the school in the subsequent year. This year - projects included solar panels, refurbishment of the sick bay and sport equipment. It is the responsibility of each group to set targets and work together to raise the funds, either by contributing personally, or through running events. The school prioritises engagement with older alumni, focusing on those who left ten or more years ago and are often in a better position to donate. However, on leaving school new leavers have an induction so they understand the benefits and responsibilities associated with the alumni network and being a member of it, and are invited to social events as soon as they leave.

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Warden Park Academy – U.K. Warden Park Academy is a secondary school for students between 11 and 16 years in rural U.K. They started engaging with their alumni approximately two years ago with the long term view of fundraising. With technological and consultancy support from Future First U.K., they have taken a two-pronged approach to building the network: initially, sign up their leaving cohorts annually, so they can keep in touch and monitor their progress from the time they leave school, and also utilising social and local media to track down school graduates with whom they have no contact. Future First U.K. assist with keeping the data accurate by sending an annual survey to alumni to ensure their contact details are kept up to date. Having not kept in touch with former students prior to 2013, they have concentrated on raising the awareness of the alumni network around the campus with posters of alumni, displays in the dining hall and messaging on digital screens around the school, so that current students become aware of the alumni network and that becoming part of the network is expected of them, once they leave school. They have also raised the profile of the alumni network in staff briefings and governors meetings. Members of the senior leadership team support the strategy for growing the alumni network, which helps to ensure it is a cross-school initiative. The school communicates with alumni at least once per term via a newsletter, to ensure all alumni hear from them, three times per year. They also send more targeted emails to alumni who they would like to involve in specific events, which they find yields a higher response rate. Warden Park Academy have involved alumni in a number of ways over the last couple of years, to support current students, including: e-mentoring with a particular focus on helping those most in need of additional support; a series of careers talks and revision tips that the alumni found most helpful before taking their exams.

One of their most successful events was when an alumnus, who had battled with dyslexia at school spoke about his struggle with certain subjects, and the importance of discovering where his strengths lay. He now runs a successful local business.

don’t be afraid to ask, if you ask in the right way at the right time you will get a response, the emotional connection lasts a long time and people will feel honoured to come back, the students can sense that Over the next couple of years Warden Park Academy will embark on a fundraising strategy. Whilst financially the school does not as yet have income from alumni, they have saved money by bringing alumni speakers into school as volunteers The school spends $1,500 annually on the salary of a member of staff for one day per week and on outsourcing the technology and administrative support to Future First U.K.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Javier School - Ecuador Javier School is a school situated in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and provides education for students aged 4 through to 18. They started getting back in touch with alumni in 2001, creating a separate association: ASIA Javier, whose main goal is to both strengthen relationships between the alumni and the school, but also to support alumni to become leaders in their wider communities. The network is made up of 1,700 former students. They sign up their final year students whilst they are still at the school, and speak with them about the network and its benefits before they graduate, part of which involves highlighting their relationships with other classmates so that they have some idea of social connections and networks of friends. The school puts emphasis on the importance of being linked to and supporting the local community throughout their studies so that a philanthropic mindset is inculcated from the beginning, which results in a much stronger alumni culture. ASIA Javier communicate with alumni through multiple channels: social media, the website and via email, in which they promote events and send updates about upcoming opportunities to get involved. They have sent email newsletters in the past, but this is dependent on whether volunteers have time to put together the content. ASIA Javier focuses on maintaining the connection with alumni by inviting them to fiestas and exhibitions in school or other places according to the number of participants, where they can meet with current students. They run days about different career sectors so that the students understand how their studies contribute to their future professions in a practical manner. In order to keep alumni engaged over a period of time, ASIA Javier run a calendar of events across the year: alumni sports teams, religious reflection days, social reunions for alumni to get together twice annually and leadership workshops twice per year. The sports matches are particularly important for maintaining community and they now have fathers and sons who are both alumni play together.

ASIA Javier have an annual congress meeting which all alumni are invited to in order to feed into the mission and activities for the subsequent year.

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Westlake Boys High School – New Zealand Westlake Boys High School is a state school in Auckland, New Zealand. The school’s Board of Trustees initiated the re-launch an alumni network in 2007, ahead of the school’s 50th birthday. In order to raise awareness, school leaders were trained about on the benefit, and importance, of alumni engagement for the school. The success of the re-launch, over the last eight years, is attributed to its prioritisation in the wider school strategy. The school ensures the leaving cohort are well briefed about the association and profiles of alumni are placed around school to constantly remind students of the diverse pathways that Westlakers take. To re-establish connections with more distant graduates, the school has identified class leaders and strong networkers who have been instrumental in reaching out to their peers. The school now have more than 5,000 alumni on their database, who they communicate with at least once every two months. The e-newsletter is distributed quarterly and includes updates of school activities, details about upcoming events and a feature that involves looking to the past to foster nostalgia and start to build up a history of the school, through these communications. Opportunities to become involved are communicated via social media, especially Facebook so that alumni can link the the events of interest to their own profiles. The school have integrated a series of alumni events across the school calendar, which has been key to establishing relationships.

you must treat your volunteers with sincere gratitude – they personally enrich the culture and community and, as such, are worth their weight in gold. It’s all about relationships to start with, and it’s critical to earn the trust and respect of alumni over time before asking them for support of any kind, including financial support.

The school involves alumni wherever possible, for example as guest speakers in assemblies, as volunteer sports coaches and some even contribute their artistic skills; a sculptor is currently creating a piece of art for the school. Alumni also support a number of programmes that focus on one-to-one support for individuals, such as a work experience scheme for students undertaking practical courses and a pastoral mentoring programme for boys across all year groups who could benefit from a positive role models and additional support. Having spend most of the last nine years building relationships, Westlake Boys is now in the position to elevate fundraising efforts amongst their alumni network. In order to embark on their philanthropic asks, the school conducted a study into what might be feasible. Survey findings revealed that a student hardship fund was most popular amongst prospective donors. As a result, the alumni association established the Westlakers $100 club for alumni who would like to contribute towards this initiative. In its first year, the Westlakers $100 club raised $10,000. In the following year the school raised over $175,000 in additional donations and pledges towards capital projects. To manage and co-ordinate the extensive alumni programme, the school has now hired a full time manager, which is funded centrally. However, in order to cover costs for materials and events, they have introduced a $50 charge for all first year boys. This gives life membership to the association.

Every School A Community: A Guide to Working With Your Alumni

Acknowledgements We would like to thank all of those who were so generous with their time and were willing to be interviewed for the research. Aimee Wadeson, Assistant Director of Institutional Advancement, Green Acres School, U.S.

Courtney Roehling, Director of Engagement, Alumni Association of University of Texas, U.S.

Alex Beard, Director of System Change, Teach for All, U.K.

Danie Strydom, CEO, Gradnet, South Africa

Alexandra Bingham, Alumni Coordinator, Scope Global, Australia Andrea Guillarte, Communications Coordinator, Andrés Bello Catholic University, Venezuela Andres Ballerino Moeller, President of Alumni Association, Javier School, Ecuador Andrew Baird, Alumni Officer, Christ Church Grammar School, Australia Angela Manginelli, Director of Alumni Relations, AIFS Study Abroad, U.S. Angela Rugo, Alumni Networks Coordinator, Akazi Kanoze Access, Rwanda Astrida Cooper, Director of Development, Ivanhoe Grammar School, Australia Aura López Calixto, Administration Director, AEXCOA, Colombia Beth Munro, Alumni Manager, The University of Edinburgh, U.K. Betsy Lawrence, Leadership Gift Officer, Groton School, U.S. Brooke Molpus, Director of Alumni Impact, Teach for All, Hong Kong Cari Maher Lynch, Alumni Relations Coordinator, Graded School, Brazil Casey Keller, Director of Customer Success, GIVGAB, U.S. Cathy Roughan, Alumni Coordinator, Westlake Girls High School, New Zealand Charlie Collins, Trust Coordinator, Epsom College, U.K. Charmaine Niemand, Manager of Gradnet, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Chelsea Kindred, Alumni Relations Coordinator, API Abroad, U.S. Clara Lim-Tan, Principal, Yu Neng Primary School, Singapore

David Whitaker, Director of the Harrow Association, Harrow School, U.K. Deborah Minors, Senior Alumni Development Officer, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa Doug Rigg, Director of Alumni Relations, Punahou School, U.S. Ekaterina Yankova, Alumni Development Manager, Teach for Bulgaria, Bulgaria Elise Dunstan, Alumni Coordinator, Ivanhoe Grammar School, Australia Ellen Monk, Alumni Development Officer, Robert Clack School, U.K. Emma Kenny, Head of Strategy, NCS Trust, U.K. Felicity Madiope, Alumni Affairs Associate, African Leadership Academy, South Africa Fiona Mavhinga, Development Manager, CAMA, Zimbabwe Francis Wight, Network Development Manager, Student Hubs, U.K. Grecia Herrera, International Education Director, Mektebim Schools, Turkey Gretchen Krans, Director of Alumni Relations, The University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Howard Collins, Grants and Fundraising Manager, Warden Park Academy, U.K. Iiris Oosalu, Head of Alumni, Noored Kooli, Estonia Jay Allnutt, Director of Strategy, Teach First NZ, New Zealand Jess Kelso, Manager of Online Engagement, Advance, U.S. Jim Mazza, Associate Vice President of Alumni Affairs, Cornell University, U.S. John Batistiche, Director, Potentiality, Australia John Rolfe, Development Director, Shrewsbury School, U.K.

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Jonathan Misoi, Deputy Director of Alumni Association, Kapsabet Boys High School, Kenya Judit Jakab, Alumni Campaigns and Networks Officer, Central European University, Hungary

Sara Shuti, Alumni Manager, Teach for Australia, Australia Sarah Shanahan, Assistant Director of Alumni Communications, NYU, U.S.

Kathy Edersheim, Senior Director, Yale University, U.S.

Scot Walker, Director of Communications, Alumni Association of Texas A&M, U.S.

Katie Smith, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Camfed International, U.K.

Scott Robinson, Alumni President, Bridgetown High School, Australia

Laura Herring, Individual Giving and Communities Manager, The Scouts Association, U.K.

Sharmi Surianarain, Director of Lifelong Engagement, African Leadership Academy, South Africa

Lea Sublett, Associate Director of Alumni Relations, ANU, Australia

Sophie Maddocks, Development Officer, The Sutton Trust, U.K.

Lou McCarthy, Deputy Director of Alumni Relations, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Srividya Mouli, Principal, TVS Academy, India

Mariana Blásquez, Secretary, San Ildefonso School Alumni Association, Spain Marisa Labiri, Coordinator for Development, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Meredith Jordan, Alumni Relations Manager, Ryerson University, Canada Mike Butcher, Senior Communications Officer, Raleigh International, U.K. Mukeeta Jhaveri, Alumni President, Cathedral and John Connon School, India Naomi Kinditi-Kivuvani, Secretary, St George’s Alumni Association, Kenya Naya Bloom, Vice President for Social Innovation, Teach for America, U.S. Neema Kamau, Treasurer, St George’s Alumni Association, Kenya Neil McWhannell, CEO, Educate Plus, Australia Nick Jenkins, Director of Alumni, Shrewsbury School, U.K. Patrick Taylor, Director of Programmes and Impact, Youth United Foundation, U.K. Richard Amin, President of Alumni Association, St Peter’s Boys Secondary School, Ghana Rudolf-Werner Dreier, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Freiburg, Germany Sandra Rincón, Director of International Alumni Relations, University of Tilburg, Netherlands

Sujit Ray, Alumnus, The Hindu School, India Suzanne O’Reilly, Alumni Coordinator, International School Copenhagen, Denmark Thabisile Seme, District Coordinator, Ikamva Youth, South Africa Tommy Foreman, President of Alumni Association, Grand Prairie High School, U.S. Tracy Joosten, Grant Manager and Alumni Services, Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Nepal Tyler Forkes, Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations, Ryerson University, Canada Tyler Fugazzi, Communications Manager, Virtual Enterprises International, U.S. Vera Pasynkova, Alumni Manager, IEDC Bled, Slovenia Vernon Rose, National Director, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, U.S. Victor Roda, Head of Alumni, Juan de Lanuza School, Spain Vicki Fowler, Community and Development Manager, Westlake Boys’ High School, New Zealand William Kennedy, Charity Liaison Officer, Blackbaud, U.K. William Maddocks, Group Scout Leader, 1st Creigiau Scout Group, U.K. Ximena Deramond, Head of Alumni Relations, Karlstad University, Sweden Yvonne Procyk, Associate Director of Development and Alumni, TASIS, Switzerland

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“…alumni bridge the gap between the students and the rest of the world.” (President of Alumni Association, India)