ISCA Weekly Chair Post
Red leather chairs in a conference room
What's New?
August 15, 2019


Meeting Alumni Where They Are

School alumni are an important constituency to schools for many reasons. They are important ambassadors of the school but also are a pivotal group when planning for the school's financial well-being. Whether you want to reach out to alumni for major fundraising campaigns, planned giving, annual giving, alumni collectively have a larger giving capacity than your current families. Keeping them 'invested' in your school is the key and the Board should know and care how this happens regardless of whether you an elite boarding school or a small K-8 school. School resources dedicated to alumni relations will vary accordingly, but there are some strategies that can be employed, independent of resources, that seem to be important factors to alumni.

NAIS surveyed over 7,000 college age alumni from 170 independent schools across the country between 2016-2018 and asked a series of questions including how they prefer to stay connected to their alma mater. Here's what they said:
Since 61% of the alumni want to stay connected with social networking sites, NAIS reports that more than 130 independent schools are using the app EverTrue which "allows alumni to opt in to a directory and networking site on their smartphones."
Another key statistic is that 47% of alumni keep in touch with faculty and staff. I wonder if faculty and staff may be an underutilized secret weapon for engaging with alumni?

Read the article on the NAIS website for more information about the alumni survey and new trends in alumni engagement.





Upcoming ISCA Events

Webinar
Setting Yourself Up for Success: Tips for New Board Chairs
Wednesday, September 25th
1:00 - 2:00 pm EST



ISCA Fall Governance Conference
October 24 - Member reception
October 25 - Conference
The Penn Club, New York, NY
Limited room block with discounted rates at The Iroquois hotel
Make your reservation today!


Weekly Chair Post written and compiled by
Bethany Di Napoli, ISCA Executive Director

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