What has been the difference?  What are the common traits that thriving alumni engagement programs (and their leaders) possess that struggling programs (and their leaders) are lacking?

Here are five common ingredients across multiple clients that have created success in the digital realm during this new normal:

1. Leadership with a vision – The team leaders in high-performing programs have taken the time to do serious strategic planning. They have inculcated enduring values into their program and established a guiding vision, mission, and set of priorities that dictate the work they do at any given period of time. Strategies, goals, and tactics are more easily adaptable when you have a clear sense of why you exist and what you need to do in order to live your mission.
2. Trust among the leadership team – Right below the leader there are several other individuals who understand and live the values of the organization. They embrace the vision and mission and support their teammates.  THEY TRUST EACH OTHER!  Great work happens when trust is the foundation.
3. Entrepreneurial culture – Imagine an alumni engagement program where all team members in the organization – top to bottom – are encouraged to experiment. They are rewarded for trying new things and are even given permission to fail.  How much have you learned from past failures – both professionally and personally?  In many cases, failures are the key to future success.  I know that has been true about my career. The highest performing, most agile, and progressive programs are the ones where failure is not only acceptable, it is celebrated.
4. Three key words: Focus, Focus, Focus – While many alumni engagement programs have struggled to stay relevant across and up and down the entire organization, the top performing teams are just as busy as ever because they are focused. Instead of trying to do 25 things and do them just okay, the focused programs have clearly articulated 3-5 priorities to accomplish during this digital-only phase, and the entire team has – literally – done only those 3-5 things.  They stop everything else and get really good at delivering what is most important: value to alumni, content for professional development and personal enrichment, and increased access to the alumni network.
5. Engagement metrics are being closely monitored – Alumni engagement numbers are up! The best programs are seeing an increase in the breadth of alumni engagement.  They are tracking, recording, and reporting these results to their campus leaders, advancement colleagues, alumni boards, and alumni councils. My favorite example is a client that conducted a Zoom webinar for alumni using a well known faculty member as a speaker on an important and current topic. If this university (in a dense metropolitan area) were to hold this event on campus, they normally would have expected 100-150 attendees. They moved the program on-line and 550 alumni attend the event. It was a huge hit! They lowered the barriers to engagement, saw five times the audience size, had no loss in quality, and had significant increases in first-time and diverse audience engagement. They know all of this because they tracked attendance, recorded it in their database, and reported it to demonstrate impact.

The combination of strong leadership, trusted teams, an entrepreneurial culture, a focused outcome-based approach, and commitment to metrics are leading to never-before-seen success in breadth of alumni engagement.  This is true across the spectrum – large public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, independent schools, and non-profits alike – they are not just surviving during COVID… they are thriving!