Young Alumni: Establishing Lifelong Relationships

Online | October 9, 2024 10:00 am ET - October 10, 2024 2:00 pm ET

Registrant Access Only

This training will not be available asynchronously.

Young Alumni: Establishing Lifelong Relationships

Online | October 9, 2024 10:00 am ET - October 10, 2024 2:00 pm ET

Inspire students and recent graduates to engage in a meaningful lifelong connection with your institution.

Overview

Young alumni constitute one of your most influential and important alumni groups. If your shop can engage them while they are still students, and further inspire a habit of giving soon after they graduate, the likelihood that they will become committed alumni volunteers and major or lifelong donors increases significantly. As such, it’s crucial to have a robust and meaningful young alumni program, since it can often translate to greater long-term financial health for your institution.

Join us online to learn how to intentionally engage young alumni from the time they are students through 10 years post-graduation. This virtual conference is a must if your institution wants to establish strong, lifelong relationships with its newest alumni, in which our expert speakers bring a track record of young alumni engagement and inspiration.

Take part in this two-day event to gain useful, practical content that will teach you how to:

Cultivate a culture of engagement and philanthropy on campus
Transition students to their new alumni status
Use artificial intelligence and digital strategies for personalized content and outreach
Recruit and manage specialized volunteers
Design effective in-person, virtual, and hybrid events

Who should attend?

This program is ideal for alumni relations and annual giving professionals who specifically work with young alumni, and who want to build new engagement efforts or improve upon the programs they currently have in place.

Agenda

Wednesday, October 9, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
Welcome and Introductions
10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

The Student Philanthropy Model
10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
A successful young alumni program depends upon cultivating a spirit of philanthropy and engagement throughout its student experiences before they become alumni. Our student philanthropy model and its three core components (awareness, gratitude, and giving) will set the context for the program.

Student Philanthropy Programming
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Now that you understand the student philanthropy model in full, we will walk through the typical student life cycle, identifying where you can cultivate awareness, gratitude, and giving. You’ll then examine best practices for transitioning your students to alumni through effective philanthropic, volunteer, and event opportunities.

30-Minute Break
12:15 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Capitalizing on Student Volunteers
12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
In this session, we’ll talk through a “super” volunteer program that trains students starting as early as their first year on campus, and which calls upon them for support throughout their young alumni years. Through this alumni ambassador program, highly trained students are given significant leadership and solicitation training, and are then used for planning events, admissions panels, social media ambassadors, and more. Our knowledgeable experts will share how to integrate such a program into your own efforts to leverage existing campus leadership and governance programs—expanding on your transition efforts and strengthening your volunteer program.

Day One Q&A and Wrap up
1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Thursday, October 10, 2024
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
Understanding Transition: Engaging Young Alumni
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
You’ve worked hard to engage your students, providing opportunities for them to increase their involvement, while also educating them on the importance of giving back. However, if you haven’t considered the magnitude of the student-to-alumni transition, you will likely lose your already-loyal representatives. Here, we will transition past two years in the big picture, as you also learn how to best communicate with these new graduates as they become alumni.

Creating Events Targeted at Young Alumni
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
How are you approaching this academic year when planning for in-person, virtual, or hybrid events? In this session, you’ll examine how to design creative and flexible events that will attract your young alumni.

In this session, you’ll consider:

Different potential programming options aimed at graduates in the first five years compared to those in the first decade,
Share and learn examples of successful events offered by institutions over the past two years, and
Delve into the lessons learned from them.

30-Minute Break
12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Digital Young Alumni Engagement
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Now that we’ve covered in-person and online events and programming, we now turn to all things digital to complement your efforts. First, our expert panel will share how they use technology such as artificial intelligence, social media platforms, and other digital strategies.  Next, we’ll solicit innovative digital tools or strategies from you, our participants, to generate a list of ideas that can be beneficial to everyone.

Action Planning, Final Q&A, and Wrap Up
1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.