How To Smother Alumni Engagement In 5 Easy Steps

Here are 5 "easy" steps to smother alumni engagement. This tongue-in-cheek article is based on actual data from the 2024 VAESE research, showing common practices being used by alumni organizations everywhere.

(About a 5 minute read)

I recently presented some of our findings from the VAESE Alumni Relations Benchmarking study to group of alumni and advancement professionals. We discussed many topics related to alumni relations, advancement and fundraising. But without question, I've had more feedback about our research into the most common practices that smother alumni engagement.

So, here's a list of five ways alumni organizations are successfully smothering their alumni engagement. 

A wonderful CASE article references the ‘4Rs” of fundraising: Research, Romance, Request, and Recognition.  As a best practice, it states 60% of the fundraising process should be spent on romancing alumni. However, our research clearly indicates that most institutions ignore this best practice. 70% of institutions solicit new graduates twice or more within the first year. Some institutions send as many as 10 solicitations that first year. Among all institutions, the average is 3.4 solicitations of new grads within the first year.

Solicitation is NOT romancing or cultivation. Soliciting is not materially contributing to the relationship…it’s expending from the relationship. In the immortal words of Sammy Hagar (and popularized by Aussie 80’s heartthrob Rick Springfield): 

Your alumni are fed up too.

And they're ditching their alma maters in droves.

How do I know?  Our study revealed that on average, institutions report that 8.8% of their alumni have "opted out." 

Opting out means alumni want to end contact with their alma mater (i.e., alumni asking to be listed as "do not contact" or "do not solicit").

For schools where their student athletes compete at the NCAA Division 1 level, their opt-out rate is 9.1%.  Big schools with 10 or more alumni professionals (FTEs) report their opt-out rate is 13.1%. 

On top of that, our study found that roughly one in three institutions report a worsening opt-out rate over the last five years, and 35% say their opt-out rates are have not improved over the past five years. Only 3% report that fewer alumni are opting-out over that same time period.

What in the world is going on here, folks?

Why is higher education advancement struggling so much with alumni retention and engagement?

Our research shows that institutions that don't solicit new grads in the first year have an opt-out rate of 56% lower than institutions that do solicit their new grads during that first year after graduation. (See all of our research here on this topic here.)

If your institution is solely focused on asking alumni to give without offering anything in return, it's time to rethink your approach. Stop being a taker and start nurturing meaningful relationships with your alumni. The financial impact of over-soliciting without providing value is a recipe for failure. Instead, focus on cultivating relationships with alumni for long-term rewards.

This leads to our next step in how to smother alumni engagement.

2-Ignoring Disaffected Alumni, and Not Tracking Opt-out Trends

Your opt-out rate measures the number of alums who ask to be permanently placed on the “do not mail” “do not contact” or “do not solicit” list. (An unsubscribe from email is not an opt-out). Opt-out rates can be an indicator of your program’s lack of value or relevance, over-soliciting (see above) or otherwise annoying your alumni.

Our research shows that at least 31% of alumni organizations don’t know or don't track their opt-out rates. Your alumni engagement programs can’t grow without knowing if your alumni are unhappy with you or not.

Opt-outs are expensive, especially if you are losing established givers/engaged alumni. The costs of acquiring or replacing donors/members/volunteers are expensive. Many organizations spend as much as 80% of their budgets to acquire new donors/members.

By lowering your opt-out rate, it can mean a significant increase in revenue. This study shows boosting retention by 5% can boost revenue by 25-95%. But you first need to know if you have a good or bad opt-out trend.

Once you know how you’re trending, it’s also important to have a process of repairing strained relationships.

And that leads us to our next one:

3-Making Programming Decisions Based on Guesswork Rather Than Data

Our research shows that of all alumni organizations: 

• 42% have never surveyed their alumni.
• 19% do not use any tools whatsoever to measure the effectiveness of their engagement efforts.
• 70% to not track ROI (return on investment or amount spent vs. revenue) to evaluate the success or failure of their programs.
• 21% don’t monitor digital response rates (such as visits, clicks, likes, etc.)
• 26% don’t measure social media amplification (such as re-posts, shares, re-tweets, etc.)
• 75% don’t use Net Promoter Score surveys.

Getting actionable data requires an initial investment of time and effort. But it pays off when you can make decisions based on reliable data, and not be handicapped by wrong assumptions that often result in wasted time and resources.

If you haven’t surveyed your alumni, use a free or low-cost tool like Survey Monkey to conduct an online survey and measure your alumni satisfaction. Find out what types of benefits alumni would like. However, asking your alumni how they feel, and doing nothing with that data, is a betrayal of trust in a relationship. It’s like telling your spouse you’ll put the coffee cup in the dishwasher, then turning around and putting it in the sink. At some point, asking what alumni want, and then ignoring their feedback is a terrible way to build a relationship.

4- Eating Your Seed Corn 

I grew up in a small farming community and picked up some valuable advice from the wise local farmers: “Don’t eat your seed corn.” It’s a metaphor that emphasizes the importance of planning for the future. Seed corn is what farmers plant for the next year’s crop. If you make the mistake of eating your seed corn instead of saving it for planting next year's crop, you might enjoy temporary benefits but ultimately you'll face disastrous consequences in the long run.

However, many institutions fall into this trap. They prioritize short-term revenue goals over the long-term future of the institution. By continuously soliciting alumni without providing value, they inadvertently push these valuable supporters to opt-out, viewing them as a necessary casualty of fundraising efforts to sustain the institution.

Creating a life-long relationship is far more important than generating short-term revenue. That’s why whenever an alum initially gives/joins/volunteers, it should be viewed as just the starting point, not the primary objective. Your overarching goal should be on establishing a long-term relationship.  

This focus on life-long engagement requires an organizational cultural shift.  Instead of just meeting the minimum standard of preventing alumni from griping about something, the focus should be on nurturing genuine, lasting connections and cultivating a group of devoted "super alumni" who will advocate for the institution. While this approach requires more time and dedication, the result is a steady long-term growth path, with alumni actively endorsing the institution to others.

5- Ignoring the Need to Offer Alumni Benefits

Offering alumni benefits is NOT just for dues-paying organizations.  Alumni expectations of their alma mater have changed over time. You can no longer assume your alumni will be loyal for life. That’s because the competition for your alumni’s attention and loyalty is increasing. You are fooling yourself if you think your alumni organization is not in competition with other loyalty/membership programs.

Your alumni (like all consumers) see on average 5,000+ advertisements/ brand exposures per day. Of those, 362 will be attempts to engage (using some form of a call-to-action.) Consumers respond, on average, to 12 of those 362 attempts to engage. 

With such a concentration of marketing effort focused on your alumni, each year consumers are enticed to join an average of 29 loyalty programs per person. They include clubs for grocery stores, airlines, drugstores, credit cards, retailers, restaurants, etc., all of which consume the time, energy and money of your alumni.   

Competing for the attention of your alumni are numerous other clubs, groups, and organizations. This highlights the importance of providing valuable benefits to your alumni. Value is what grabs their attention and drives engagement. Thus, offering meaningful value to your alumni is crucial in initiating engagement.

The benefits you offer play a significant role in influencing alumni decisions on whether to engage or not. As consumers, we unconsciously assess the value of being involved with any organization, whether it's a church, a frequent flyer program, or an alumni association. Without value, the costs of affiliation become the primary concern. This is why most all memberships typically last only five years or less.

Alumni will be resistant to the costs associated with engagement, (i.e. giving or joining) if you neglect or ignore your value proposition. Too many alumni associations under-deliver on the promise of alumni benefits, when they should be over-delivering on their benefits in order to keep alumni happy and engaged over time.

The VAESE study revealed that 91% of alumni organizations invest little to nothing "to procure benefits for alumni." Another 28% rely "solely on alumni loyalty, nostalgia, and philanthropic generosity" to motivate alumni/ae to engage, join, or give.”  

To me, that's a startling statistic. And one that needs to be addressed. 

Yes, I get it.  Budgets are tight.  The economy sucks. We're seeing a cultural shift "where traditional views of (higher) education’s intrinsic value collides with market needs."  And to make matters worse, the culture of higher education makes it especially stubborn in its resistant to change.

But something has to give, if your institution is to thrive long-term.

When you alumni can see that the value you offer them exceeds the cost of being engaged, they will grow far less more responsive when they are asked to give of their time, talent or treasure.

(You can download the  2024 VAESE study here)

This article was originally published in 2017, but has been updated with the most current data from our 2024 VAESE Alumni Relations Benchmarking Study.