A growing number of U.S. institutions are recognizing the importance of reaching out to and involving alumni in meaningful ways--so much so that it's encoded as a specific campaign goal. But, like fundraising goals, alumni engagement goals are not realized easily, overnight, or just because they're committed to paper. Lasting engagement takes…

With roots going back to 1986, the Student Team on Alumni Relations or STAR was one of the first student-alumni groups in Canada and routinely attracted capable and enthusiastic volunteers. It offered to appreciative, albeit small, student audiences a suite of popular programs, including job shadowing and goodie boxes parents could send to their…

Colleges, schools, and faculties at large universities form strong academic bonds with students. So is it any wonder they want a say in keeping these students engaged as alumni? To provide that input, many larger institutions are decentralizing their alumni operations, meaning that colleges, schools, and faculties have their own alumni staff…

Increasingly, there is a growing realization in alumni relations that successful alumni programs, benefits, and services are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, alumni engagement is ultimately all about the institution. Success in alumni relations ideally advances an institution's overall forward progress. Twenty years ago, alumni strategic…

Everyone in the business of raising funds for graduate and professional schools knows that the effort has certain challenges. Deborah McCreery, of Widener University School of Law, identifies two main hurdles to alumni fundraising at Widener Law: (1) student loan debt; and (2) a perception problem. At Widener Law and other professional and…

Based on a survey of approximately 40 professionals involved in various disciplines associated with international education across Canada, this study examines Canada's (federal, provincial, and territorial government) offering of scholarships to international students. Focused at the university level, the study elaborates on relevant international…

A telephone survey of 328 graduates of a major Canadian university strongly supports continuation of the alumni newspaper, and found that: features are popular with specific subgroups; willingness to pay for the publication shows support for the paper but not a subscription fee; paid advertisements are acceptable; the university is popular in…

This report describes the University Library Alumni Outreach Research Project. The goals of the project were twofold: to describe and analyze alumni outreach initiatives currently offered by university libraries belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as well as the alumni programs and services offered by the universities…