Measuring Alumni Association Results
What areas of your Alumni Association do you plan to measure and how will you explain the return on investment to your school leadership?
Cesar G ,
Everyone is looking for ways to document their ROI (Return On Investment) and you've accurately identified some key areas you want to measure. The next challenge will be to determine exactly how to be able to measure the impact of alumni on those areas.
June Gudeman
Although there are many measurable factors to present to school leadership. I believe that retention, completion and placement are the most important. Retention and completion will keep your school operating for future students to take advantage, enroll and graduate from the school. Placement will keep those alumni engaged and will put out a positive message about life after college. This will enable placement to reach or exceed their benchmarks set forth by home office.
Maria Rosario,
It is one thing to say these areas would be impacted. It's another to determine how. So how, specifically, will your alumni help your retention numbers? How would you involve them in placement and enrollment and how would you quantify your return on investment?
June Gudeman
All three areas: enrollment, retention, placemenets. It is of utmost importance that all departments in the school understand the functions of the Alumni Association and what it could contribute to long-term plans and hanges to the school. When each department sees the value of this organization, every staff will be very pro-active and will not hesitate to assist.
Debra,
Thanks for your response. I really like how you're integrating current students and alumni. Our grads are such a great resource for our students.
June Gudeman
Membership is free. Our Alumni and Current Students have access to our Resume program. Through this program, I am able to review and make suggestions.
Currently job are posted on our Facebook page, which is available to Alumni and Current Students.
We have not planned a specific networking opportunity yet, as we are awaiting feedback and suggestions from our Alumni. Many events are open to both Alumni and Current Students. In fact, some graduates even return to speak at Orientation to our incoming classes.
Debra,
Will you offer free or paid membership into your association? What will you offer your grads for placement assistance and how will you measure the success of your assistance? How do you plan to offer networking?
June Gudeman
The two areas we will measure are:
1. Alumni Membership
2. Placement
To begin with, a major focus will be on Networking. This will allow Alumni to network with other Alumni, current students, faculty and staff.
Jodi,
Measuring your return on investment with your alumni is difficult in many areas. For example, you can measure how many graduates show up to an alumni event, but it's difficult to track the positive feelings they have for their institution and how that plays out in the conversations they have with friends or family. But, there are specifics, as you mentioned, that can be measured and it's important to set up procedures to gather the information we're looking for.
June Gudeman
I am curious to track the percentage of students who are hired directly as a result of their externship experiences. Of course, I am also curious about the feedback we will get from the employers regarding the competency and professionalism of our graduates. This can help us tighten up any weaknesses in our curriculum.
Stephan ,
I'm really glad to hear that as a result of this course you are seeing the need for an organized approach to relating with your graduates. Social media is a great, simple, cost effective way to connect and even track your alumni. And, who knows what it may lead to in the future -- alumni events, a dedicated alumni website, associations, etc.?
June Gudeman
I see value in many ways and the areas of measurement of concern to me are student retention, tracking student success in the workplace, and the opportunities to gain enrollment through referrals from both students and employers/members of the community who have interacted with graduates and seen the positive impact on the students knowlede from participating in the program offered by our school. We are a small trade school, and are expected to handle a variety of situations with a small staff. I now feel after taking this course that an alumni association with social media involvement can help us track, stay in contact with, and update student information, assisting our small staff in some of the important expectations from the Board of Education.
Bradley,
This is a challenge for every institution.
I think you have chosen a couple of really good places to start and areas that lend themselves to clear outcomes.
June Gudeman
This is a challenge for my institution... metrics have never been a focus here until the last year or two under our new president... and lack of software to allow easy generation of numbers is also an issue...
I think we would need to focus on two areas at the outset:
1. Since we are starting from scratch, the number of alumni members for whom we have current contact info (ie, emails don't bounce back)
2. from a strategic enrolment management standpoint, working with Admissions to track how our retention/return to school rates of previous grads.
Gail,
How will you provide opportunities for your alumni to provide referrals and how will you keep track of those numbers?
June Gudeman
Increase in enrollment referrals, new contact info. captured; ROI will be slow at first so buy-in of admissions director is key.
Coryne,
I totally agree. There is such power in those stories of success. It enables the student to identify and visualize themselves succeeding. We use those success stories everywhere - newsletters, books, posters, staff emails, booklets, pamphlets, etc. They are SO powerful!
June Gudeman
The areas that I plan to measure are the referrals that we will have and see from other graduates reading success stories on the Alumni website/newsletters. Also our job placement rates I think will greatly improve. I think that this could greatly effect the student body morale, as they get a little afraid of the next step after school and want to see only the negitive and someone to blame for their fear of the next step, the Alumni with guest speakers can show them how to overcome that fear and that they are not alone in that fear.
Samantha,
Good ideas! It's difficult to actually track numbers specific to graduate influence, but you can sure try!
June Gudeman
