Educational institutions with alumni programs can enjoy benefits such as financial support, donations, professional support, student guidance, and mentorship. High-profile alumni can also boost a college or university’s image at conferences and fundraising events.
However, many institutions lament the fact that they aren’t seeing these alumni benefits. Could it be that too little attention is given to how the alumni themselves benefit?
When alumni receive value for their participation, they are more likely to give their alma mater something in return. Here are seven benefits your institution can offer your alumni.
Why is it important to offer benefits to your alumni network?
Educational institutions can reap many benefits from their alumni networks, yet too many simply don’t offer enough to them. When you offer benefits to your alumni network, you show your alumni that you appreciate their participation, recognize their achievements, and value them and their contributions.
Builds a culture of ongoing engagement
Have you noticed a dramatic decline in alumni association interest and involvement?
When you offer alumni benefits, you build a culture of ongoing engagement that promotes future involvement in the program. This will lead to more of your graduates wanting to join your alumni programs.
Encourages financial support
Is your college or university in dire need of some extra funds?
Giving alumni benefits encourages your graduates to lend financial support to your institution. This may take different forms, such as through a set monthly, quarterly, or annual financial contribution, or a large once-off donation.
Boosts your institution’s reputation
Does your institution need to improve its public image and reputation?
A strong alumni program that offers its alumni benefits they value, can be the precursor to some free PR. Your former students will think (and speak) more highly of their alma mater in conversion, in speeches, and in the media, thus boosting your reputation.
7 Valuable benefits your institution can offer alumni
Research shows that 81% of alumni feel unrecognized and unappreciated by their alumni organizations. These are the alumni benefits your institution can offer alumni to show them that you care, thus boosting engagement and financial support.
1. Career services and educational resources
Invest in your alumni relations by providing your graduate students with career advice and other valuable career services. Give them the tools they need to succeed, and allow them to access an exclusive library of educational resources.
You can do all of this and more with an online community platform like Aluminate for Education. This platform serves as an alumni online community that can be customized to your unique requirements.
The Aluminate platform features a dynamic digital dashboard where your alumni can access job postings, an educational resource library, informational articles, important alumni announcements, and so much more.
2. Continuing education discounts
Create a culture of lifelong learning with alumni benefits that will enhance career development and ultimately, quality of life. Promote continuous learning, such as continuing education classes and discounted certificate programs and courses.
An educational discount alumni benefit allows your college or university to give alumni more value for their money. Meanwhile, your institution is continuing to earn a profit from these follow-up courses of study.
This is the perfect example of how the benefits given to your alumni will lead to benefits from your alumni. In this scenario, everyone wins.
3. Alumni networking opportunities
Create connections by hosting networking opportunities for your university’s alumni association. Networking events build a stronger alumni network and can lead to job referrals, business partnerships, and lifelong friendships.
They also offer your alumni the opportunity to brainstorm with their fellow alumni on fundraiser ideas and other projects for your institution. That makes this an alumni benefit that is in your best interests, too.
The Aluminate platform is ideal for your alumni association’s webinars and virtual social networking events. Announce all upcoming networking opportunities on the digital dashboard. Here, your alumni will see the content that is most relevant to their chosen industry and personal interests.
4. Exclusive alumni association events
Create opportunities for fellowship, friendship, and support by allowing your alumni to socialize with fellow alumni at exclusive events. They don’t have to be formal affairs. Here are some creative ideas for alumni events to inspire you.
You can also create virtual activities on your alumni online platform that allow graduates who now live further afield, to join in the fun. By segmenting your alumni network with the Aluminate Groups feature, alumni with similar career paths, passions, and interests can communicate and collaborate.
Remember to keep alumni data accurate and up-to-date. It will make it easier for your institution to reach out to alumni and invite them to join your programs. Aluminate’s Social Data Sync feature makes this easy and convenient so that they don’t miss out on these exclusive events.
5. Discounts and perks
Offer your alumni network special discounts and perks, for example, branded merchandise bearing the institution and alumni association’s names or emblems. These items will engage alumni and instill pride in their alma mater.
Don’t dismiss these as too small or insignificant to engage your alumni. Alumni benefits like these, while relatively inexpensive, can have a big impact.
Perks like free or discounted branded merchandise help to solidify the connection between graduates and their alma mater. And as a bonus, they also serve as marketing materials for your institution when used in public.
6. Volunteer and mentorship opportunities
Arrange volunteer opportunities on your campus or out in the public sphere for your alumni to be a part of. This will make them feel needed and appreciated, and they will see firsthand how their program membership makes a difference to the community.
Create a mentorship program where your former students can mentor current students. This allows alumni to share their knowledge, skills, and talents. Aluminate’s mentoring feature makes it easy for these prospective mentors and mentees to find each other.
Such services don’t only benefit your current students. The members of your alumni associations who offer such services benefit, too. They share their knowledge and skills while feeling recognized and appreciated.
7. Recognition and rewards from their alma mater
Does your institution give alumni the recognition and reward they deserve for their outstanding accomplishments? If not, it’s time to start implementing these crucial alumni benefits into your alumni association.
Create a recognition and rewards program that fits your institution’s culture and budget. Invite alumni to contribute to it as well, should they have the means.
Whether it’s a virtual mention on the alumni network online platform or a formal awards ceremony, the effect is the same. Your alumni will know that even after graduation, you continue to be proud of their achievements.
How Aluminate for Education helps manage alumni initiatives
At Aluminati, we understand the growing need for automation to relieve admin burdens. We also realize the importance of data analysis and insights into how well your alumni benefits program is doing. That’s why we added these two exclusive features to help admins manage alumni initiatives, and better understand their communities’ engagement.
Intelligent Matching Engine
The Aluminate Community Builder includes a powerful Intelligent Matching Engine. It automates what used to be a burdensome job — matching program members to one another, and relevant content in the network.
In just a few clicks, the Intelligent Matching Engine can match program members to :
- Further study courses
- Networking and social events
- Volunteering opportunities
- Mentorship opportunities (matches mentors to mentees, and vice versa)
- Special interest groups
- The program’s (and the institution’s) latest news and developments
- Relevant job vacancies
- Exciting offers exclusive to alumni
And so much more.
Matches can be downloaded and concluded manually if preferred, but the engine can also automate the process.
This handy feature ensures that your alumni reap the most benefits from your program, increasing engagement.
Insights
Everyone from leading businesses to top academic institutions relies on data analysis and insights to determine the return on investment their alumni programs offer. This helps them make more data-driven decisions in the future.
The Aluminate Community Builder makes this process even easier, with Insights. This highly dynamic and fully customizable admin tool is suitable for both academic and corporate use. Simply choose from a library of pre-set reports, or create your own, to better suit your needs.
The Insights tool lets those in the corporate sector track relevant Key Performance Indicators such as generated business, re-hires, and HR savings. In the academic world, it can be used to track generated donations, and interest in volunteerism and mentorship.
So, how does this help you manage your alumni initiatives, and offer alumni the benefits they want? It offers you an in-depth understanding of what drives your community’s engagement. And that allows you to adapt your strategy, and optimize budget allocation to the benefits they really want.
Aluminate for Education is the best platform to deliver benefits to your alumni
Part of building a strong alumni network is offering alumni benefits that boost engagement and encourage further participation. However, just as any building needs a firm foundation, so too does your alumni association. And you can give it that, with Aluminate for Education.
With Aluminate for Education, you can build a new alumni network, update existing pages, and scale your online community as its membership grows. Give your alumni benefits that matter, through a platform that’s customizable, dynamic, and rich in innovative features.
Request your free demo today.
