2017 Alumni Group Survey Highlights + Podcast Discussion

Photo Credit: Faustin Tuyambaze

We’ve been sharing the details of our Alumni Group Survey in a series of blog posts designed to make it easy to explore the great data and walk away with applicable insights for your own organizations. Of course, we understand if you can’t cram all 9,841 words into your reading schedule this week. So, we’ve put together a quick set of top 10 lists so you can still drop some knowledge in your next meeting!

Our Top 10 Takeaways

1. Talk to your groups. Even if you are providing a tool or service to them, chances are a significant number still have unmet needs. Talk to them about what those needs are and how you can solve them.
2. One-size-fits-all metrics leave smaller groups behind. Most groups are small and in areas with few graduates — measure their success differently than the largest groups.
3. Learn how your strongest groups bring on new volunteers with meaningful responsibilities without setting them adrift. Keeping potential and current leaders engaged and active is a huge indicator of a group’s overall cycle of engagement and growth.
4. Invest in tools, services and training. Amplify your budget by investing in reusable and scalable tools that solve back-office, marketing and leadership gaps.
5. Groups are a core part of your institution’s brand. Over half of all groups lead local outreach to prospective students before they’ve ever set foot on campus.
6. Relatively few groups hold formal events, but those who do report extremely high success rates. Think about starting a small annual formal dinner or dance.
7. Local peer collaboration is the most important thing you can do.
8. Learn to love newsletters. The perfect tool doesn’t exist yet, but experiment with ways to empower your groups with email.
9. Aim for each group to host 10 events a year. That will put them in the top third of all groups.
10. Diversify digital outreach. Successful groups have their own website and actively use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The 10 Best Facts To Back It All Up

1. Most groups are small. 54% have fewer than 100 members. Only 10% have more than 1,000.
2. Only 11% of groups are in markets with more than 5,000 graduates. 23% have fewer than 500.
3. 71% of groups communicate with their local peers, but only 22% do it regularly. When we ask the most successful groups about this, 95% of them are working with other groups in their area; over half do so regularly.
4. “Getting members to attend events” is the most common problem facing groups — 78% said it was a pain point. The next most common challenge is “recruiting leaders,” an issue for 42% of the groups.
5. The solutions groups want most are website/social media tools (42%), member outreach training (41%), newsletter tools (39%), funding (36%) and event planning tools (34%).
6. 69% of groups receive less than $500 a year. 5% are receiving more than $5,000.
7. 53% of groups have their own website. Of the most successful groups, 90% have their own site.
8. 90% of groups use Facebook while only 30% use Twitter and 27% use LinkedIn. However, the most successful groups are actually a little less likely to be using Facebook but are twice as likely to be using Twitter and LinkedIn.
9. About half of all groups are engaged in outreach to current students and 57% lead local outreach for prospective students.
10. 71% of groups send their own newsletters and 54% maintain their own email database.

Advancement Live Discussion

I also had a chance to breakdown some of the data in this survey on the Advancement Live podcast with Kim Brown from Syracuse and Sonja Watkins of Cornell. You can find the podcast in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Higher Ed Live”, listen to the audio anytime here or if you want the fully immersive experience, check out the live broadcast video below!

For your👂:

For your 👀 :

The Full Series

Dive deeper into our Alumni Group Survey series to get more details on each of these topics:

• Introduction and Group Profiles
• Challenges Facing Alumni Groups and What They Need to Solve Them
• Alumni Group Activities and Trends
• Alumni Group Funding
• The Digital Toolbox for Alumni Groups
• Lessons From The Highest Performing Alumni Groups

Thanks

And finally — a very important thanks to Gunnar Johanson. Before he joined the Mizzou Alumni Association, he worked with our team to spearhead group outreach and helped all 400+ groups find and complete the survey that made all of this possible.