The New Rules of Engagement: On-Demand Webinar Series
Building the next generation of alumni leaders and volunteers
While the number of $1B higher ed campaigns has increased, there seems to be a sense of unease across the advancement profession. The 2014 alumni and alumni leader participation rate went down to 8.3% from 8.7% in 2013 and 14% in 2001. In addition, 75% of Millenials are more likely to donate to their favorite charity over their alma mater.
So how do we engage the next generation of donors? This is a definite concern for partner chief advancement officers who answered our 2015 topic poll. 70% of partners said that their top-of-mind issue is engaging the next generation of alumni leaders and volunteers.
To find out how to engage this new alumni cohort, access the slides and recordings from our on-demand webinar series, “The New Rules of Engagement.”
The Case for Investing in Volunteer Engagement
In this on-demand webinar, learn more about why the focus needs to be on alumni leaders and volunteers. You’ll hear strategies to build a relationship, deepen affinity and win loyalty, see ROI, and realize strategic priorities.
Rule Two – Meet Them Where They Are
Today’s constituents are overworked and overconnected, so it’s more important than ever before to create convenient and accessible volunteer roles that allow alumni to participate in their regions, workplaces, or online. On average, we spend 6+ hours online daily and 55 minutes reading about or communicating with friends on social media. As a result, you should prioritize regional, workplace, and online channels.
To do so, we’ve identified several strategies to meet them where they are. For instance, you could increase the accessibility of volunteer opportunities to get in the alumni line-of-sight. This could mean at the workplace because it opens up the opportunity for corporate match programs, creates channels for career services, and attracts a higher-capacity constituent over traditional alumni programming.
In this webinar, we will examine how innovative and progressive institutions are creating convenient and accessible volunteer roles that allow alumni to participate in their workplaces, regions, or online.
Rule Three – Broker Smarter Matches
In this webinar, we examine how innovative and progressive institutions are developing mass-customizable, skills-based roles that maximize volunteer talents and engagement and how they proactively identify high-potential alumni volunteers to participate in these opportunities.
Learn how to create skills-based volunteer roles, make proactive asks, and surface promising individuals to match to specific volunteer roles. Skills-based roles allow volunteers to make a distinctive contribution and proactive asks help institutions target and engage particular segments. Additionally, crafting opportunities to fit individual strengths and preferences for high-value segments offers higher return on investment.
Explore the on-demand webinar slides to develop mass-customizable skills-based roles and make proactive asks of highest-potential alumni to engage them.
Rule Four – Embrace the “Me” Factor
In this webinar, we explain the importance of creating a two-way value proposition for volunteers.
You’ll hear about how institutions are embedding this spirit of reciprocity in their programs, offering important but intangible benefits like high-level networking, insider access, recognition, and impact communication to alumni leaders that make their participation worthwhile. It’s important for advancement offices to appeal to altruism and show value to earn their time. 33% of those aged 35 or younger who volunteer do so primarily for networking.
When crafting your alumni engagement strategy, consider offering constitutents networking and alumni career development, insider access and recognition, and how to communicate and steward volunteer impact. We highlight a variety of colleges and universities that effectively embrace the “me factor.”
You will also learn that stewardship is not just about the gifts because today’s volunteers are motivated by personal impact. The return on investment matters because 80% of high-net worth donors who monitor the impact of their giving say they do so by volunteering. Watch our on-demand webinar for engagement strategies that incorporate the “me factor.”
Rule Five – Cultivate Campus Allies
As alumni continue to desire more substantive and skills-based experiences, this webinar discusses strategies and structures to reflect the relationship between central advancement and the decentralized academic and student services units.
We predict that academic and student services units will someday provide the majority of alumni volunteer experiences because we can’t do it alone. Building strong alumni affinity requires cross-campus collaboration because alumni are increasingly tied to an academic area, identity group, or co-curricular activity. Alumni want to know about the university’s role in addressing social and global problems in addition to their work in multidisciplinary and cross-functional projects.
For instance, several colleges and universities have created a volunteer management structure that prioritizes leadership-level volunteers and mass volunteers. It’s important to consider how to organize decentralized collaboration and whether the strategy focuses on high-profile volunteer groups. Watch our on-demand webinar for strategies and best practices from those institutions.
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
Access the video
Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through Advancement Advisory Services.
Learn More