Encouraging Alumni Involvement

Keeping alumni involved after they graduate can be a difficult challenge. After all, they’re busy building a career, starting a family, and may have even moved across the country. Despite the challenges, keeping alumni involved is a worthwhile goal since it offers plenty of benefits to your chapter.

To keep alumni involved in your chapter, give them the chance to help the chapter and/or to help the current members of your chapter. One excellent opportunity for alumni to aid the chapter is to become a member of a committee that guides the chapter, such as the board of trustees or the housing corporation. If certain alumni are more inclined to participate in philanthropic activities, perhaps there’s an opportunity for them with your national philanthropy. Another option is creating a rush scholarship and inviting alumni members to join a committee that decides which applicant is awarded the scholarship.

Opportunities for alumni to help the current members of your chapter are also effective in keeping alumni involved. Consider holding a career fair where recent grads come back to your chapter and advise younger members about life after graduation. They can provide resume and interview tips, guidance on choosing a career path, advice on selecting courses that will be applicable in particular careers, and any other tips that will be useful for someone about to enter the real world for the first time.

For any of these options to keep alumni involved, make sure to give public recognition to alumni that participate. Be specific and talk about the benefits provided by alumni. If a member of the chapter is offered a consulting job after receiving resume and interview tips from an alumnus, state this explicitly as opposed to writing “Alumni X” attended our 2009 career fair. If the rush scholarship results in the largest rush class in the pat 10 years, be sure to publicly thank the alumni involved in this process. Whether its an announcement at homecoming, or a blurb in a newsletter, public recognition will increase the number of alumni that participate in the future.

None of these opportunities will do any good if alumni haven’t heard about them. Newsletters are an excellent tool for keeping alumni informed. For tools to help send out alumni email newsletters, have a look at GoZuus’ email newsletter feature.