Are You Engaging These 4 Distinct Kinds of Alumni?

Every year, institutes see its alumni community growing, some of them losing contact with their alma mater. Engaging huge alumni community is a challenge in itself. You must have observed that out of the total alumni base, only a percentage of alumni is actively engaged with the institute, the rest are just indifferent to institute’s alumni engagement activities.

Let’s just see graphical representation of your different kinds of alumni

Let us explain the triangle in detail:

1. Loyalists: Loyalists belong to the peak in the alumni triangle; they are the ones who are regularly engaged and involved in alumni engagement activities by the institute. These are the alumni who had a wonderful time with the organisation and would participate in any activity the organisation arranges as a result of this. If you will analyse them closely, you will come to know that these are the ones who are responsive to all your campaigns; from turning up to your alumni reunions to contributing to the fund-raising campaigns. Majorly, all the institutions focus their engagement activities for them.
2. Value Seekers:  Value Seekers are the alumni who had a reasonably pleasant time with the organisation and would be motivated to participate in an activity if it entailed some form of value addition for the individual. As much as institutions wish to connect with its alumni, alumni actively seek support from their alma mater. When engaged the right way, these alumni can be your greatest supporters.
3. Recognition Seekers: These are the alumni who had a reasonably pleasant time with the organisation and would be motivated to participate in an activity if it entailed the providence of ‘platform for recognition’ for the individual. Once an alumnus graduates, he pursues his career and achieves milestones and expertise in the respected field. The institute if recognises their talent and contributions, they are the most satisfied and feel that their contributions are being recognised and celebrated. They can be included in your loyalist if engaged in the right way.
4. Indifferent/Don’t Disturb: From your entire alumni base, most of the alumni fall at the base of the alumni triangle. These are the alumni who aren’t attached with their alma mater and as a result are indifferent to the initiatives of the institute. If you do an analysis, you would realise that you’re engaging only 20% of your total alumni base.

An ideal alumni triangle is the reverse triangle where number of loyalists form the largest part of your alumni community. What is challenging for institutions is building the right engagement campaign for the right kind of alumni. Alumni Engagement as a whole form a huge part of Alumni Relations Management. Step One to your successful Alumni Engagement Practices lie in identifying Alumni Triangle of your community.