This is a best practice guide that helped establish inHive as a thought leader in alumni development, back when it was known as Future First Global.
The guide is based on best practice from the UK as well as interviews with alumni practitioners from mature and thriving alumni networks in over 30 countries.
Introduction
Issues of impact, sustainability and community development have led to a marked increase in programmes looking to develop their alumni activities. This ‘how to’ guide is designed to help organisations take the next step, or even the first step, in building their own alumni programmes.
Amongst the 80 interviewees from Latin America, Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australasia who informed this report, there was a common pattern of questions surfacing. Questions such as: ‘what’s next for our participants?’, ‘what more can we do for our alumni?’ and ‘how can we mobilise support from our graduates?’ are at the forefront for those running scholarship programmes, summer programmes, youth groups, fellowships, professional training programmes and more.
Conversations around the lasting impact of programmes over the past decade have led to more and more organisations looking to invest in longer term activities with their service users. These organisations are moving beyond managing mailing lists and tracking progress, and beginning to explore what longer-term engagement might look like. Indeed, the question of alumni has become such a current one that to draw a distinction between programme participants and programme alumni is to create a false separation.
Many social sector board rooms are currently considering the question: would we better fulfil our mission by increasing our programme participants by 10% or by investing that money in turning our programme into a longer term engagement?
Likewise, the issue of sustainability sits at the front of the minds of both social sector and public sector leaders. The idea of having an engaged cohort of supporters who give back to the organisation in terms of marketing, donating money, time and expertise, providing programme insight and governance support, is an exciting one in an age of austerity. Institutions from scout groups to teacher training programmes and scholarship providers often have as much a place in the hearts, minds and identities of their participants as schools and universities and – if they organise themselves effectively – could well benefit from every type of generosity from their graduates.
Finally, the movement towards an assets-based approach to development is highly relevant to the alumni movement. If we can find within our communities – however we define them – relatable role models, mentors, coaches and career development opportunities, then that is an exciting prospect that will always outweigh outside ‘interventions’.
This guide will look at how organisations can develop their alumni networks. It uses insight from schools and colleges, but is tailored to an audience of people from outside formal educational institutions. These programmes often play as much a role in the identity of an individual as their former educational institutions and as such are often presented with the same opportunities as such institutions.
91% of alumni engagement experts interviewed for this study considered their alumni community ‘essential’ to their respective organisations. This guide will be a f irst step towards bringing that ‘essential’ value to any organisation that could benefit from it.
The process of building an alumni community around an organisation is quite different from doing the same in an educational establishment such as a school. An organisation might have participants involved in a variety of projects across a variety of locations, and so creating a central identity that alumni can relate to, can be challenging. This guide will set out how organisations can overcome some of these barriers to create cohesive alumni communities and cultures, by establishing systems, to ensure their communities are well managed, and provide long-term support to current participants, the organisation itself and the alumni community.
Often, projects with alumni begin with a modest investment of time, passion and perseverance, and, as can be seen in the guide, this can lead to incredible outcomes. We hope this guide will provide the necessary tools and information to get any volunteer, employee or community leader started on their community-building journey.
